Bob Kent 11/5/21 Bob Kent 11/5/21

Five Reasons to Buy a Wall Calendar

With all the technology we have at our fingertips why would anyone want to buy a wall calendar these days. Think about it. We have calendars on our phones, calendars on the computer, calendars in our Email application, calendars on our watches, and even the date on our car stereo.

The wall calendar should be as dead as a doornail. Yet the more accurate phrase is “the wall calendar is dead, long live the wall calendar!” What magic gives this lowest timekeeping device alive and well?

Here are my top five reasons the low tech “wall calendar” thrives in this technology-driven society:

In our high-tech screen-driven world, images and information are fleeting. This creates a human desire for something physical and more permanent. We have two calendars in the house. One in the kitchen and one in the main bathroom. I usually make two calendars, one of the Eastern Sierra and one of Dodger Stadium. We catch ourselves regularly stopping and looking at the images. It takes us back to places and experiences we love.
It is like having Christmas twelve times a year. The calendar in the kitchen is too high for my wife to reach. On the first of each month, one of the first things she asks me to do is to flip the page on the calendar. She looks forward to seeing what the next image is going to be. It’s like opening a present! Some of the images have a special meaning because, as my “Photographer’s Assistant” she told me to take them!
Wall calendars bring people together. You can write something on a calendar for a specific date. From that point on everyone can see it without having to ask Alexa. We have a group of longtime friends with who we get together several times a year. With kids, sports, and work it is hard to schedule things. We have a planning party every year to map out the things we want to do together for the next year. You should see the calendars come out at that event. If you have a friend that really likes a particular topic a quality wall calendar on that topic is a great way to provide an inexpensive gift that still has a very personal touch.
I think having a wall calendar hanging up is also a character statement. Let me give you an example. In the Book Blue Highway, the author takes a trip around the US trying to drive only on “Blue” highways, meaning back roads. In the book he stated he could predict the type of meal he was about to have by the number of calendars the restaurant had on its walls:

“No calendar: Same as an interstate pit stop

One calendar: Preprocessed food assembled in New Jersey

Two calendars: Only if fish trophies are present

Three calendars: Can’t miss on the farm-boy breakfast

Four calendars: Try the ho-made pie too

Five calendars: Keep it under your hat, or they will franchise”

Now think about it. The last road trip you made. If the joint had a calendar or two, usually of a local youth sports team or a local business, the food was pretty good and the service was friendly. Now think about the last time you saw a calendar at a McDonalds. Enough said.

Well, maybe one last point for my Highway 395 friends. Our first impression of the Aberdeen Resort was a Margie standing in front of a wall calendar hanging next to a rotary phone. The food was off the chart.

5. The benefits of buying from a local or small-time artist that focuses on a place or thing you love.
In my case the Eastern Sierra. You are supporting a local artist. That artist will put some of that
money back into the local economy of the place you love. If that was not enough, the calendar will
bring you back to your happy place all year long.

We have several calendars up on the walls of our house. The connection between calendars on the wall and good food that the Blue Highway author makes is true. The BBQ at the Kent house is pretty tasty.

After reading this you have the desire to buy a wall calendar of the Eastern Sierra check out mine at the link below.

2026 Eastern Sierra Calendar

Begin 2026 with the Eastern Sierra Calendar from Bob Kent Photography—beautiful photos showing the area’s wild beauty and changing seasons. Each month displays colorful skies, tall mountains, and classic landscapes, bringing the Eastern Sierra’s charm to your home. A year-round tribute to nature’s beauty.

This year has something new. QR code that leads you to the story behind the picture!

Bob Kent 7/19/21 Bob Kent 7/19/21

Clouds make my Eastern Sierra Sunset Images Pop!

"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky."

- Rabindranath Tagore

In my previous blog, I talked about how wonderful the weather was. It was doubly perfect having still mornings and cloudy afternoons. The still mornings created “glass” like conditions on the lake surface, one of my signature types of photographic images.

In this post let’s have fun discussing the cloudy afternoons we had for several days in the Eastern Sierra. Glass lakes and cloudy afternoons make for great landscape photography!

Let’s do a little bit of background on why clouds form in the afternoon near the Eastern Sierra along Hwy 395 or any mountains for that matter.

Stratus and Lenticular clouds form in the afternoon because air encounters the Eastern Sierra. The air will rise and cool. This cooler air is no longer able to hold all the water vapor it was able to hold when it was warm. The extra water vapor begins to condense out of the air parcel in the form of liquid water droplets and a cloud is formed.

**Watching clouds over time is like watching a movie. The scene keeps changing as the story unfolds**

Cumulonimbus and cumulus clouds form when air rises because the mountains are warmer than the surrounding air. That causes the air to rise. Once the air rises, it follows the same process to form clouds as described above.

One additional fact. Sometimes the bottom of the clouds are perfectly flat. Cumulus clouds are the type of clouds that have flat bottoms. The bottom of clouds is the exact height at where the combination of temperature and air pressure causes water vapor within the rising current to condense into a visible cloud.

**“There came a day when the clouds drifting along with the wind aroused a wanderlust in me, and I set off on a journey to roam…” - Matsuo Basho**

The fact that hotter temperature is involved in cloud creation would seem to explain why most of these clouds don’t hang around for sunset.

For several days, clouds would form in the afternoon and we were lucky enough that some even hung around till sunset. This creates an opportunity that my photographer’s assistant and I like to enjoy. Just find a strategic spot, set up the camera, and then enjoy the show with a bottle of wine and some snacks. It is a great way to get outside and spend a late afternoon/early evening. These evenings were no exception.

One of the nights the clouds put on a show for us was when we were waiting for the Bridgepoint fireworks on the 4th of July. The Bridgeport firework show was awesome, but I think the Sun bursting through the clouds was an equally impressive light show.

I hope you enjoy the clouds the Eastern Sierra help create as much as we do! Be sure to check out my other blogs for stories and images in and around the Eastern Sierra. Feel free to share this post with anyone you think would enjoy it.

Wishing happy trials to you, until we meet again!