. . . from the archives #105: Yuccas - 1973

Yucca #1 - San Gabriel Mountains  1973

Yucca #2 - San Gabriel Mountains  1973

I remember taking the bottom photo as I was driving up the road from Azusa to the Angeles Crest Highway. Not sure about the vertical photo on top.

. . . from the archives #104: Death Valley - 1973

Sage, Mountains - Death Valley 1973

 

Joe, Racetrack - Death Valley  1973

Photos taken 50 years ago during a visit to Death Valley (then a national monument) with my brother Joe. 

I'm pretty sure that's the famous racetrack in Death Valley.

. . . from the archives #103: Aguereberry Point - 1973

Aguereberry Point - Death Valley  1973

The first in a series of photos that I took in 1973 - 50 years ago. (Probably already posted on the blog.) 

Aguereberry Point in Death Valley was a favorite location of my brother Joe and myself. For one thing there was an outhouse that, when the door was flung open, provided an outstanding view. This photo was taken at sunset . . . we had planned to camp there overnight (against the regulations) but an encounter with a park ranger changed our minds.

Camera used was a Nikon F loaded with Panatomic-X film.

. . . from the archives #102: Backyard - Berkeley 1969

Backyard - Berkeley  1969

50 years ago. I was renting a second-floor room in a house on College Avenue while I was attending UC Berkeley. Google Street View reveals that the place looks about the same now.

Mike, College Avenue House

College Avenue House (Google) January, 2018

. . . from the archives #101: First Falls (Big Pine Creek) - Sierra Nevada 1995

First Falls (Big Pine Creek) - Sierra Nevada  1995

Yesterday's photos were taken from the other side of the bridge, towards the upstream side. Here's another view from 1995 looking downstream. Mike used a Mamiya C220 twin-lens reflex camera for the photo.

. . . from the archives #100: Temple Crag - Sierra Nevada 1974

Temple Crag - Sierra Nevada  1974

Yay! The 100th "from the archives" post!

This was taken during Mike's first visit to the mountains above Big Pine. (Whoa . . . 44 years ago!) Back in 1974 Mike had just completed a Sierra Club wilderness training program; as a result, he became enthused about early-season backpacking. So it was that he found himself up in the Big Pine lakes area with his ice axe, snow still on the ground. Photo was taken with a Nikon F.

It's interesting. There's a photo of Temple Crag on the contact sheet, but no photo of the lake in front of it. Odd.

. . . from the archives #99: Mountains, Highway 395 - Sierra Nevada 1994

Mountains, Highway 395 - Sierra Nevada  1994

As I was driving north (away) from the Mammoth Lakes area I stopped at a pullout to take this photo (looking back). I was using a Toyo Field 4x5 camera with a roll film adapter.

One thing I was trying to do when I attempted to print the negative was to emphasize the curves on highway 395 by dodging (blocking the enlarger light from reaching the paper), thus making the curves lighter. Very difficult!

But not so difficult using Photoshop.

. . . from the archives #98: Salt Wells - Nevada 1988

Salt Wells - Nevada  1988

“All quiet at the cathouse / Way out in the desert, time passes slowly between customers.” (SF Chronicle) 2002

Alas, destroyed by fire in 2007.

More recent photo of the area: Outside of Fallon.

. . . from the archives #97: Maroon Bells - New Mexico 1993

Maroon Bells - New Mexico  1993

Vistadome car that I saw in the Santa Fe area, photo probably taken with a Minolta 35mm SLR.

. . . from the archives #96: Surf, Queen Anne's Lace - California Coast 1968

Surf, Queen Anne's Lace - California Coast  1968

Well, that's the problem with some of these older negatives: there's really no way to know exactly where they were taken. Sometimes it's obvious, and sometimes I just remember the circumstances for some reason.

But not with this one. So, for now, just "California Coast" as the location. Standing on a cliff somewhere, pointing the camera downwards.

I used a Nikon F 35mm camera, with, probably, Panatomic-X film.

. . . from the archives #95: Trees - Yosemite 1997

Trees - Yosemite 1997

I've always liked this photo, even though I never got around to framing it. I guess that I wish that there was a little more depth of field . . .

Taken near the parking lot for Bridalveil Fall with, I'd guess, a Toyo-Field 4x5 camera. I've tried to recreate the photo using digital cameras, but no luck so far.

. . . from the archives #94: Highways 70 & 191 - Utah 1993

Highways 70, 191 - Utah  1993

Moab is some miles off to the right.

Top: Photo taken in 1993 from the rest stop just before the 70/191 junction. Film.

Below: Photo taken in 2016 from the same rest stop. Digital

Highway 191, La Sal Mountains - Utah 2016

. . . from the archives #93: Church - Hornitos 1995

Church - Hornitos  1995

Nice photo! Although Edward Weston and Ansel Adams had gotten there first. I was going to drop by Hornitos last year to see what the intervening 20 years have wrought. Alas, my plans were disrupted by the weather.

. . . from the archives #92: Church - Randsburg, 1994

Church - Randsburg  1994

Didn't get out of the car for this one. Taken on my way to Death Valley.

. . . from the archives #91: Church - South Dakota, 1958

Church - South Dakota  1958

Abandoned church, photo taken with an Argus C3 during a family trip to the midwest.  (Rear of Nash Rambler seen on the left.) Statuary was all smashed up on the inside, but still amazingly intact.

Nice shot of the interior below.

Church Interior - South Dakota  1958

. . . from the archives #90: Oyster Farm - Point Reyes, 1990

Oyster Company - Point Reyes  1990

"Oyster Co." the sign says. We knew it as Johnsons Oyster Farm. Later, Drake's Bay Oyster Company.

Now closed. You can read a summary L.A. Times article here. Of particular interest are several amusingly ignorant comments following the article that somehow miss the point that the closure was a federal, not state, decision.

. . . from the archives #89: Foxtail Pine, Snow - Sierra Nevada, 1974

Foxtail Pine, Snow - Sierra Nevada  1974

That year I had been taking the Sierra Club’s mountaineering course and one of their talking points was that backpacking in the snow was great fun as long as you were adequately prepared.

So in order to practice our skills we took a group trip up to the Eastern Sierra, camped overnight at Onion Valley and then headed up towards Kearsarge Pass. I remember one incident in which one of my boots sunk a little bit more than I had expected into the snow and, as if in slow motion, I inexorably twisted and fell—backwards, my backpack squished in the snow as I struggled, turtle-like, to get back up.

At one point the snow started coming down pretty heavily. We set up camp well short of the pass, amidst foxtail pines. I shared a tent with Pat Brown—her husband, Rick, was unable to make it that weekend. I assume that that’s her in the photo below. Photos were taken using a Nikon F with a 50mm lens.

Tent, Snow - Sierra Nevada  1974

. . . from the archives #88 : Yuccas, Rocks - Joshua Tree National Park, 1999

Yuccas, Rocks - Joshua Tree National Park 1999

Taken with my Toyo view camera (see below). Another in a series of 1990's photos.

I remember taking a rock climbing class with the Sierra Club here in the 1970s when it was still a National Monument.

Tie that bowline! On belay! For some reason I never experienced that adrenaline-fueled rush upon attaining the summit, so I didn't persevere in any rock climbing activities.

View Camera - Joshua Tree National Park  1999

. . . from the archives #87: Sand Dunes - Death Valley, 1992

Sand Dunes - Death Valley  1992

 Revisited using Photoshop. The original had branches reaching up past the edge of the photo, plus a confusing stray branch at the bottom. Fixed!

Photo of a print that I made using my darkroom below:

Sand Dunes Print - Marin County  2015

. . . from the archives #86: Stairs, Berkeley, 1970

Stairs - Berkeley  1970

Stairs leading to my upstairs room in the Harney's house on College Avenue. It was during this period that I was hard at work on my Asian Studies Master's Thesis, "Nichiren and the Development of His Thought."

Huh. No book reviews yet.

Photo taken with a Nikon F using a 50mm lens.