Bob Kent 5/20/19 Bob Kent 5/20/19

A Perfectly Cloudy Day

Me and my camera took off for the high country. When we got there, it was cloudy. Perfectly cloudy to be exact. You see lots of people love blue skies, but photographers think blue skies are boring and long for partly cloudy skies. Especially Cumulus, Cumulonimbus, Stratocumulus, and Lenticular clouds. The first three are what the Lord gave me this “I got to go” trip.

We live in LA, wait we live in Mammoth. Yes, we are one of those folks, but our Mammoth place doesn’t stay vacant much. We are not skiers, so we take a winter hiatus during the snowiest part of winter and let the ski people enjoy our place. The winter withdrawal this year was worse than usual. Work has been intense, and I needed a John Muir soul “refresh.” I told my better half “we have to go now.” She said she had to work but was an angel for letting me go without her.

The entrance to Hot Creek Never looked so good!

Me and my camera took off for the high country. When we got there, it was cloudy. Perfectly cloudy to be exact. You see, lots of people love blue skies, but to photographers blue skies are boring. We long for partly cloudy skies to add impact to our images. Especially Cumulus, Cumulonimbus, Stratocumulus, and Lenticular clouds. The first three cloud types are what the Lord gave me this trip. It was like he was saying good decision to come on this trip!

Green Church with Clouds! FYI, this is the first time I captured an image of the Green Church I liked!

As a teenager and when my kids were young I remember afternoon thunder clouds while camping at Silver and Twin Lakes. This trip was like a Deja vu. There were afternoon clouds and thunderheads all around. Over the whites, over the Eastern Sierra, seemed like they were everywhere. I needed something to frame the clouds. Off to Hot Creek I went.

This one huge cloud kept morphing as the afternoon went on. I followed it for an hour or so. After I had chased the clouds for hours and thought I had gotten my fill, I headed off to Tom’s Place to get a JoJo margarita. She makes a mighty fine margarita. On the way I kept having to stop because I would see another awesome thunderhead rising above a mountain ridge line here then there.

Either this is what Moses saw in the desert of aliens are coming! :-)

The amazing thing about the trip was with all this weather activity, the water on the lakes in the June Lake loop was so still that the lakes looked like mirrors. Since still water is another of my favorite things I got a twofer on this trip!

Silver Lake Glass (a Blog post in its self)

What a great weekend. So glad I decided to heed the “calling” of mountain’s to go!

FYI, I will be teaching a Photography Composition class at the Mono Arts Gallery on September 28th. Then on the 29th will facilitate a field trip to put what you learn into practice. You can sign up here. Would love to see you there!

Bob Kent 9/26/16 Bob Kent 9/26/16

Tom's Place

When we are in the Sierra we really enjoy visiting Toms Place. The bar is a perfect local rustic dive bar you would find in small towns back east. The bartenders we have come to be friends with, Jo Jo and Donna, are the best. Great Margaritas and Bloody Mary. The food in the restaurant is delicious comfort food.

On Labor Day Toms Place has a Car Show and BBQ. It makes for a fun visit and this year there were over twenty pretty "sweet" cars at the show. The images below are just a sampling of the cars that were "in attendance."

Toms Place has been around for a long time which is part of its charm. Originally built in 1917 by a German man not named Tom but Hans Lof. It started with a gas station to service the traffic coming from Southern California. Lof added cookhouse, store and corrals.

In 1923, Thomas Yerby purchased the business and Tom built the original Tom's Place Lodge in 1924. Hence the name Toms Place.

This pretty much sums up the type of cars that were at Toms Place on Labor Day

Speaking of Mustangs there was a sweet 1965 restored to original condition.

Incredible Tear Drop Trailer for "Roughing It"

Looking at the blanket in the truck bed below you would have thought the owner had it custom made. That was not the case. The owner told me he had won it in a raffle at another car show a few weeks earlier. The raffle had several versions of the blanket with different colors. When he claimed his prize the girl recognized him and said I know what color you want orange!

Cool cars, the BBQ was delicious which made for a great day!