24 hours in the Cuyamaca Mountains

View from the top of Stonewall Peak with the last rays of the setting sun:


Last Saturday, we did an overnight camping trip to the Cuyamaca Mountains. We were staying at Green Valley Falls campground and were fortunate to get a spot very close to the falls. Soon after arriving, we took a walk down to the falls to see how much water was flowing through them and what they looked like. The last time I was there in January, the recent snow was melting, which created a nice river through the valley. Fortunately, there was still a nice amount of water running. With the warmer weather, however, it also brought out a crowd of people playing in the icy water and sunning on the warm rocks. We decided to come back Sunday morning for photos.

One of our goals was to hike up Stonewall Peak and catch the sunset from the peak. Stonewall is 2 miles up and 2 miles down, with a 950 foot elevation gain (photo from January - snow is all melted now):
Photo of Stonewall Peak

We started the hike around 4:30 pm, which ended up being a bit early. The wind on the peak was cold and blowing strong and we had a bit of time to kill waiting for the sun to slowly set. I'm glad we waited though, as the setting sun lit up the clouds to the east:



We started down the mountain after the sun passed below the peaks to the west. The ambient light was enough to get us about halfway down, after that we had to turn on our flashlights to avoid stumbling on the rocky path. That night, it got down to 32 F - we had frost on the tent and covering the ground the next morning.

I got up around 7 AM, trying to wait for the sun to warm me up a little bit, but still early enough so that it wasn't shining directly into the Green Valley falls. I was also the first person down at the falls and I had their peace and beauty all to myself.



I was able to shoot for about an hour before the sun started shining through the trees, straight down the valley.



Stonewall Peak:

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Scott

Spring sunset at Woods Cove, Laguna Beach

After the past 3 years, I've spent a lot of time diving Woods Cove in Laguna Beach, but I haven't photographed it above water. Due to the marine layer that moved in late in the day last Saturday, I took a chance on it being clearer further north.

I love the rocky structure along the beaches in Laguna Beach. It provides a reef structure for life underwater, including kelp, sea anemones, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, sea hares and nudibranchs. It also provides safe harbor for garibaldi and other fish to lay eggs.

However, The rocks can make it harder to enter and exit the water. I've had my fair share of stubbed toes and trip ups from walking into a submerged rock with scuba gear on. At Woods Cove, there are two ways to enter the water - either to the right or left of the large structure on the left side of the photograph. The entrance on the left side is somewhat protected from waves and has fewer rocks and is the easier way to go.

Woods Cove, Laguna Beach:

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Scott

Dive report - 2 dives of Pt Loma 3/27/2010

Mikey Bear above the pinnacle:


Dive #1

Date: 3/27/10
Location: Pt Loma kelp beds
Time in: 12 pm
Time under: 42 min
Max depth: 89 ft
Min temp: 54F
Vis: 15-20 ft
Waves: periodic large swells, but no problem
Buddy: Mikey, Dave Hershman
Setup for Wide Angle (hoping to see a sevengill shark)

Hermissenda crassicornis on the reef:


Dive #2

Time in: 2:18 pm
Time under: 42 min
Max depth: 79 ft
Min temp: 56F
Vis: 15 ft
Waves: swells
Buddy: Dave Hershman
Setup for macro

Highlights: Exploring two large pinnacles covered in life. Nudibranchs seen: porters chromodorid, spanish shawl, hermissenda crassicornis, tritonia festiva, stearns aeolid, flabellina trilineata, cadlina luteomarginata. I also saw my first underwater spiders. It was really nice to 'hook up' with Steve Murvine and Gayle Van Leer out on the water.

Mikey holding onto a kelp holdfast:


It was a beautiful day out on the water after a month of storms. The sun was shining brightly. There were occasional large swells, but with a really long period, they were hardly noticeable.

Red gorgonian with kelp in the background:


For the first dive, I was setup for wide angle, hoping for good visibility and a sevengill shark. Even without seeing a shark, the twin pinnacle structures that Gayle and Steve found were amazing, going from about 65 feet down to the bottom at 95 ft. In between was a sandy channel littered with shells and rocks, almost like an underwater river bed. Mikey and I did the dive together, with Dave joining us later due to some equipment issues. It was a pretty cold dive, partly due to a leaking right arm in my mostly dry suit.

Stearn's Aeolid (Facelina stearnsi):


After an hour and a half surface interval, complete with lunch and cookies and wringing out my undergarment, I switched my camera over to macro. Mikey sat out the second dive due to a leaking inflator valve on his drysuit. Right as I got in to the water, Gayle and Steve surfaced and shouted that they had seen a sevengill. But it was too late to switch the lens back, oh well... Dave and I dropped down to the same pinnacles again, looking for macro life to photograph. I didn't explore as much of the structure this time, closely examining the reef for nudibranchs. About half way through the dive, I noticed that my pictures were getting awfully dark. Turns out, my strobe batteries weren't lasting as long as they normall do. By the end of the dive, only one of them was firing... On a positive note, my drysuit stayed dry on this dive.

Mikey pointing to the reef:


About an hour after getting back to the dock, I noticed my left shoulder was a little itchy and felt hot. I looked in the mirror and noticed a mottled appearance with some reddish/black/blue areas. Apparently, I had skin bends on the same shoulder that got the Type 1 DCS hit a little over a year ago. I immediately called DAN, who recommended I go and get checked out, even though breathing oxygen was the only treatment really needed. On my way to UCSD/Hillcrest, I got a call from the diving doctor to confirm what DAN had told him. It was a busy Saturday night at the ER, but they finally got me my on O2 by about 9 pm. The rash went away pretty quickly and they decided no chamber ride was needed (yay!). Now no diving for another 6 weeks :( Our best guess is that I'm not getting enough circulation in my left shoulder, either due to suit squeeze or just low blood pressure.

Diver Dave Hershman looking for macro subjects on one of the pinnacles:


The rest of the pictures are up at:
http://underpressurephoto.com/Dive-Reports/20100327-Scuba-Pt-Loma/

Scott

Cloudy sunset at Bird Rock, La Jolla

I was working on finding a good composition for beach sunsets at Bird Rock in La Jolla on an overcast spring day. I could have used a little help from the clouds and sun. I like the way the halo in the clouds echoes the shape of Bird Rock, but the shot is missing some color. This spot is really special at low tide and I plan on heading back to try to catch a colorful sunset.

Bird Rock, La Jolla (green arrow is approximately where the photo was taken):

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Scott

Saturday morning on Mt. Baldy

A couple of weeks ago, I was staying near the base of Mt. Baldy, so I took a morning drive up the mountain. I only had a couple of hours, so I didn't make it all the way up to the ski resort. Along the way, I stopped to take a short hike down to San Antonio Creek, which was running pretty good from the snow melting.

I continued up the mountain, looking for scenic spots to take photos. I ended up needing a one day adventure pass for the remaining hour I had. I just made it out of the ranger station with the pass, when a whole troop of Boy Scouts came marching down the road and lined up to go inside. There were hikers and other people up on the mountain looking for snow to play in.

A little further up the road, I came across a really scenic spot with the San Antonio Creek running through a beautiful grove of trees, complete with ivy covering some of the trees. It was about 9:30 in the morning, so the shadows were still long and they were wreaking havoc with the photos I was trying to take. It was one of those spots that was really scenic, but I couldn't figure out how to make a good composition between all the trees and the bright and shady spots.
I'd like to go back to that area again some day and figure out how to capture the beauty. I ended up with the following photo of the creek bed, as the trees made it way to busy:



Further on up the road, there was a parking area next to the trail that leads to the Ice House Canyon. I didn't have much time left, so I parked quickly and walked down to the trail. The San Antonio Creek was running alongside the trail and there was snow/ice in the shady areas. I walked down the dry part of the creek bed to see if I could line up a shot of the snowy peak, the creek and the snow nearby. I never found such a lineup, but I did stumble upon a massive amount of ladybugs. They were bunched up in the bushes and on low hanging branches in the hundreds to maybe thousands. As I turned around, I realized I'd probably walked over/on a few of them. They were mostly in large bunches but there were a few stragglers scattered all over the place. I ended up with them landing on me and the tripod. Trying to photograph large bunches of them didn't turn out too well, so I decided to take some macro shots of just a few that weren't crawling around quickly:



The large mass of lady bugs were at the green arrow on the map, just off the trail near the parking lot:

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Scott

Flowers in the desert

Desert Sunflower with Sand Verbena in the background:


I'm finally sharing some of my flower closeups from Anza Borrego. The sun was a little harsh on Friday but better on Saturday with cloud cover. The sand verbenas were my favorite of the flowers that were in bloom. Hopefully there are more in bloom now that the weather has warmed up and it hasn't rained in a whole week. The desert mustard had to be weeded out of the small patches of flowers that were in bloom.

Sand Verbena macro (click on the picture to see a larger version):


The sand verbena flowers are about the size of a cotton ball. Another favorite are the Desert Lupine, of course with sand verbena in the background:


A few more photos:
http://underpressurephoto.com/Flowers/Anza-Borrego-Flowers-2010/

Scott

Desert landscapes

Sunrise breaks through the clouds:


I took an overnight trip to the Anza Borrego desert this past Friday to check out the spring wildflower bloom. It had been way too long since I'd camped out and I really enjoyed getting back to nature. It sure opens up a lot of possibilities as far as cheap mini vacations to good photo spots.

Sunrise and wave clouds:


The weather on Friday was nice and warm, with high clouds. On Saturday, it started out overcast and the sun took longer to break out, but the clouds were spectacular after that. Conditions were good all around and the rain waited until after we'd left. The flowers are just getting started and should improve with all the rain. The blooms were sparse and we had to explore a lot of different areas just to decide where to shoot the sunrise. We went off-roading into the badlands area just east of the airport and into Coyote Canyon. It's unfortunate that sahara mustard weed is taking over the area. There were whole fields that usually bloom that were covered in the weeds. The weeds grow faster than the flowers and smother them. In the area where I shot the top photo, a nice lady was weeding the flower patches.

Mountains near the park visitor's center:


This was my first attempt at some landscape photography that didn't involve the ocean or water. Let me know what you think! Next up will be some of the closeup flower photos that I took.

A few more landscape photos are up at:
http://www.underpressurephoto.com/B-Sides/Landscapes/

The top two photos were taken at a small patch of flowers along Henderson Canyon Road:

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Thanks,
Scott