Roger D. Reading Fine Art Photo Blog

Old Cima Store – Mojave National Preserve, CA

This is a new, larger print (17 X24″ paper) of an older image of the former location of the General Store/Post Office that I mentioned in my April Photo of the Month blog. As I mentioned in that post, this building is now just a pile of debris. Seeing it in this condition made me want to revisit this image and make a new print in the larger format that I had been producing lately.

If you click on the map link below and then click on the 360 degree street view and rotate it around, you can see the building in its current condition, beside the road left of the house where I photographed the box spring mattress.

Click on the Map Link to see Where this Photo Was taken!   

Image Date: March 24, 2006, 9:25am

Exposure: Canon EOS 5D – EF180mm f/3.5L Macro USM Lens – f22 – 1/125sec

Media: Printed March 2013 – Canon iPF5100 Archival Pigment Inkjet
Moab Entrada Rag Bright 100% Cotton Acid Free Paper – Archivally Matted
Framed in 20 X 26″ Pewter colored Aluminum Frame with UV  filtering Acrylic glass

$250.00

This photo will be available for viewing and purchase at AvantGarden – The Art Gallery,
which participates in the First Saturday Artwalk in the Santa Ana Artists Village…
The Gallery is also open most weekend nights…check the website or call for more info…

If you would like a free desktop wallpaper of this image, or if you have any comments or questions, be sure to visit my Contact page. While you’re there, you can also sign up for my email newsletter if you’d like.

Facebook member? Please click the “Like” button below, so your friends can enjoy this article, too!

Box Springs - Cima, Mojave National Preserve, CA

Box Springs – Cima, Mojave National Preserve, CA

 Cima, CA is a mostly deserted town in the Mojave National Preserve. It still has a somewhat active U.S. Post Office and General Store (which I’ve never actually seen open). The town was founded sometime in the 1920′s, in the days of steam locomotives, as a location for a railroad siding. In those days, an extra steam “helper engine” was needed for eastbound Union Pacific trains in order to make it up the 2% grade from the Depot in nearby Kelso. (The Kelso Depot has been restored to become the Mojave Preserve Visitor Center, which I consider very worth visiting.)  Cima probably had its greatest growth during World War II, when shipments of iron ore from Kaiser’s Vulcan Mine were needed to produce steel for the war effort. With the advent of diesel engines, the “helper engines” became no longer necessary, and the town faded into history.

This is the remains of a box spring mattress that I found in an abandoned shack in Cima. The shack may have been the home of a railroad worker and his family, I’m not sure. It is very near a former location of the Post Office/General Store, which is now just a pile of wood and scrap metal. The mattress may have sat, exposed to the elements, for 50 years or more. I was attracted by the shape and texture of the rusted springs, and intrigued by curiosity of who the people were that slept on this bed so long ago, and what their story was.

Click on the Map Link to see Where this Photo Was taken!   

Image Date: March 17, 2013 , 2:36pm

Exposure: Canon EOS 5D MarkII – EF300mm f/4L IS USM Lens – f29 – 1/6sec

Media: Printed March 2013 – Canon iPF5100 Archival Pigment Inkjet
Moab Entrada Rag Bright 100% Cotton Acid Free Paper – Archivally Matted
Framed in 20 X 26″ Pewter colored Aluminum Frame with UV  filtering Acrylic glass

$250.00

This photo will be available for viewing and purchase at Showcase Gallery during the “Travel in Time” show, from April 3 to May 11, 2013. Everyone is welcome to attend the Artist Reception on Saturday, April 13th, from 5-7pm…Hope to see you there!

If you would like a free desktop wallpaper of this image, or if you have any comments or questions, be sure to visit my Contact page. While you’re there, you can also sign up for my email newsletter if you’d like.

Facebook member? Please click the “Like” button below, so your friends can enjoy this article, too!

A Break in the Poconip Fog - Old Marina, Mono Lake, CA

 A Break in the Poconip Fog – Old Marina, Mono Lake, CA

I have been aware of/involved with the Mono Lake Committee for decades now, and, for almost that long, I have heard about a phenomena in the Mono Basin called the Poconip Fog (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, spells it Pogonip), which I had never had the opportunity to experience before. I was heading up to the Eastern Sierra with my adopted Greyhound, Cal, when I received an email from a friend that included a link to the MLC article that reminded me about the Poconip, and gave me an idea of trying to experience it for myself on this trip to the area.

When Cal & I were finally making our way to the Mono Basin from the Mammoth Lakes area, it was already mid-afternoon, so I didn’t have a lot of hope of experiencing the fog on this trip, since I had always heard it described as more of a morning phenomena. As we came in sight of the lake, though, I could see a large bank of clouds covering the lake and the town of Lee Vining.

This photo is from the entrance to Mono Lake called the “Old Marina”, and was taken just as the fog was breaking up and letting the sun strike the line of Tufa. (For more info about Mono Lake and the Tufa formations, please see my November, 2011 Blog).

Click on the Map Link to see Where this Photo Was taken!   

Image Date: January 26, 2013 , 3:41pm

Exposure: Canon EOS 5D MarkII – EF300mm f/4L IS USM Lens – f29 – 1/50sec

Media: Printed February 2013 – Canon iPF5100 Archival Pigment Inkjet
Moab Entrada Rag Bright 100% Cotton Acid Free Paper – Archivally Matted
Framed in 20 X 26″ Pewter colored Aluminum Frame with UV  filtering Acrylic glass

$250.00

This photo will be available for viewing and purchase at AvantGarden – The Art Gallery,
which participates in the First Saturday Artwalk in the Santa Ana Artists Village…
The Gallery is also open most weekend nights…check the website or call for more info…

Facebook member? Please click the “Like” button below, so your friends can enjoy this article, too!

Slide - Leavitt Creek - Sonora Pass, Mono County, CA

Slide – Leavitt Creek – Sonora Pass, Mono County, CA

Leavitt Creek begins in the high country above the Sonora Pass (California State Route 108), and then parallels the highway until it plunges down Leavitt Falls to join the West Walker River on its journey into northern Nevada. This is a close-up of a small channel that caught my eye at one of the cascades along the side of the Sonora Pass that I frequent on my trips to the Eastern Sierra.

Two Windows - Shack - Leavitt Meadows, CA

 Two Windows – Shack – Leavitt Meadows, CA

I love old buildings, especially deserted ones. They have an air of mystery…who lived here? What were their lives like? Why did they leave?

This is one of two abandoned shacks on a hill along the Sonora Pass (California State Route 108). One of the buildings has a wooden porch on a cliff overlooking the West Walker River. A stone root cellar can be seen built into the hill below the buildings. The Leavitt Falls trailhead is just east of the buildings, and the Leavitt Meadows Forest Service Campground is just to the west. On previous trips across the pass, the buildings had intrigued me, but on this trip (a snowy day late in May 2012); I made a point of stopping and exploring with my camera. I never learned the history of the buildings, but, somehow that’s all right…mysteries are fun sometimes!

If you would like a free desktop wallpaper of this image, be sure to visit my Contact page. While you’re there, you can also sign up for my email newsletter if you’d like.

Click on the Map Link to see Where this Photo Was taken!      

Image Date: May 26, 2012, 4:00pm

Exposure: Canon EOS 5D Mark II,EF24-105mmf/4L USM Lens – f22 @ 1/5sec

Media: Printed August 2012- Canon iPF5100 Archival Pigment Inkjet
Moab Entrada Rag Bright 100% Cotton Acid Free Paper – Archivally Matted
Framed in 20 X 26″ Pewter colored Aluminum Frame with UV  filtering Acrylic glass

$250.00

This photo will be available for viewing and purchase at AvantGarden – The Art Gallery,
which participates in the First Saturday Artwalk in the Santa Ana Artists Village…
The Gallery is also open most weekend nights…check the website or call for more info…

Sierra Wave Sunset - Mammoth Lakes, CA

 Sierra Wave Sunset – Mammoth Lakes, CA

This photo was taken on my most recent trip to the Eastern Sierra, in May. I had just driven to Mammoth from my home in Southern California, unpacked my bags and headed off to dinner, very tired and hungry after my trip. After dinner, I started heading back to where I was staying, and I saw this amazing sunset. The Sierra Wave cloud formations that I had mentioned in a previous blog were blowing through the area, and the setting sun was hitting them in just the right way to light them on fire with color. Luckily, I had my camera & tripod in the car with me, so I headed up a dirt road to an open meadow that I know of, set up and started shooting. Being there renewed my enthusiasm for photography, and this was a great beginning of what I consider a very productive trip. Keep checking back for more images from this trip!

If you would like a free desktop wallpaper of this image, be sure to visit my Contact page. While you’re there, you can also sign up for my email newsletter if you’d like.

Click on the Map Link to see Where this Photo Was taken!    

Image Date: May 21, 2012, 8:22pm

Exposure: f7.1 @ 1/8sec

Media: Printed June 2012- Canon iPF5100 Archival Pigment Inkjet
Moab Entrada Rag Bright 100% Cotton Acid Free Paper – Archivally Matted

Framed in 20 X 26″ Pewter colored Aluminum Frame with UV  filtering Acrylic glass

This photo will be available for viewing and purchase at AvantGarden – The Art Gallery…
I will be working in the Gallery on Friday, June 15th, from 5-9pm…The Gallery is also going to be open most weekend nights…check the website or call for more info…

Stairs & Shadows, Artists Village - Santa Ana, CA

Stairs & Shadows, Artists Village – Santa Ana, CA

The shapes and textures of the early twentieth century buildings in the Santa Ana Artists Village have caught my eye since around 2005, when I started exhibiting my photos at AvantGarden- the Art Gallery, but, for one reason or another, I had never really taken the time to explore the area photographically. This most recent December, my friend Roseanne Greenfield-Thong and I were talking about a local place where we could photograph together, and I remembered the Artists Village. I photographed this stairway from the second floor of the parking structure on Third Street, facing north. My goal was not to accurately represent the architecture of the stairway, but to convey in a more abstract way the feeling I had of the rhythm of the forms and shadows.

Click on the Map Link to see Where this Photo Was taken!    

Image Date: December 26, 2011, 3:33pm

Exposure: Canon EOS 5D MarkII – EF180mm f/3.5L Macro Lens – f29 – 1/50sec

Media: Printed April 2012 – Canon iPF5100 Archival Pigment Inkjet
Moab Entrada Rag Bright 100% Cotton Acid Free Paper – Archivally Matted
Framed in 20 X 26″ Pewter colored Aluminum Frame with UV  filtering Acrylic glass

$250.00

This photo will be available for viewing and purchase at AvantGarden – The Art Gallery on the First Saturday Artwalks on May 5 & June 2…I will not be able to attend the May 5 Artwalk personally, but I will be working in the Gallery on Friday, May 18th, from 5-9pm…The Gallery is also going to be open most weekend nights…check the website or call for more info…

Summer Flowers, Rock Creek - Inyo National Forest, CA

 Summer Flowers, Rock Creek – Inyo National Forest, CA

Here’s an older image of one of my favorite places in the Eastern Sierra, Rock Creek (for an image of the creek in winter and a little more of the story, please check out my January 2012 Blog).

The spring before I took this photo (2010) had brought a lot of snow, so, even in August (at an elevation of about 10,000 feet), the creek was full of rushing water and lined with flowers in full bloom. I was intrigued by the power of the dancing waters and by the light accentuating the colors of the flowers.

Click on the Map Link to see Where this Photo Was taken!      

Image Date: August 1, 2010, 4:33pm

Exposure: Canon EOS 5D MarkII – EF300mm f/4L IS USM Lens – f29 – 1/8sec

Media: Printed October 2010 – Canon iPF5100 Archival Pigment Inkjet
Moab Entrada Rag Bright 100% Cotton Acid Free Paper – Archivally Matted
Framed in 20 X 26″ Pewter colored Aluminum Frame with UV  filtering Acrylic glass

$250.00

This photo will be available for viewing and purchase at Showcase Gallery through April 22, and at the Mono Council for the Arts Gallery in Mammoth Lakes, CA, beginning May 25. (See my Galleries Page for Addresses, Maps & more Links!)

Winter Waterfall, South Fork Tuolumne River - Yosemite National Park, CA

Winter Waterfall, South Fork Tuolumne River – Yosemite National Park, CA

The Tioga road (http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/tiogaopen.htm) is normally closed for the winter, from about mid-November through mid-May. This winter, however, has been very dry so far, allowing the road to stay open until January 17 (the latest closing date on record).

On my most recent visit to the Sierras, in late November/early December (2011), I was excited to be able to revisit this waterfall that I had photographed before in August of 2010 (http://rogerdreadingphoto.com/blog/?p=5). There wasn’t much snow, but the nights had been cold enough to form these beautiful ice crystals.

Click on the Map Link to see where this Photo was taken!   

Technical Info:

Title: Winter Waterfall, South Fork Tuolumne River
Yosemite National Park, CA

Image Date: November 29, 2011

Exposure: Canon EOS 5D MarkII – EF300mm f/4L IS USM Lens – f29 – 1/8sec

Media: Printed December 2011 – Canon iPF5100 Archival Pigment Inkjet -
Moab Entrada Rag Bright 100% Cotton Acid Free Paper – Archivally Matted -
Framed in 20 X 26″ Pewter colored Aluminum Frame
With UV  filtering Acrylic glass

$250.00

This photo will be available for viewing and purchase at AvantGarden – The Art Gallery on the First Saturday Artwalks on February 4 & March 3…Hope to see you there!

Rock Creek December - Mono County, CA

Rock Creek December – Mono County, CA

Happy New Year!

I’ve had a fascination with mountain streams for quite a while now. The sound and atmosphere of water rushing in its travels from the high country to the valley is inspiring to me, and tends to help me feel peaceful & happy. This fascination seems to be emerging into the beginnings of a body of photographic work, exploring the shapes of water in motion in these streams in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Rock Creek is one of the streams I like to frequent on my trips to the Sierras. Rock Creek Road closely parallels Rock Creek starting at Tom’s Place, and ending in the high country at the trailhead for the Little Lakes Valley in the John Muir Wilderness.

This has been an unusually dry winter so far in the Eastern Sierra, so when I visited this spot in early December, there was very little snow on the ground. I was attracted to the movement of the water between and beneath the ice.

Click on the Map Link to see Where this Photo Was taken!    

Image Date: December 2, 2011, 4:02pm

Exposure: Canon EOS 5D MarkII-EF300mm f/4L IS USM Lens – f29 – 1/2sec

Media: Printed December 2011 – Canon iPF5100 Archival Pigment Inkjet
Moab Entrada Rag Bright 100% Cotton Acid Free Paper – Archivally Matted
Framed in 20 X 26″ Pewter colored Aluminum Frame with UV  filtering Acrylic glass

$250.00

This photo will be available for viewing and purchase at AvantGarden – The Art Gallery on the First Saturday Artwalks on January 7 and February 4…Hope to see you there!