Snow Falling in the Big Sur Mountains

The morning of February 23rd, 2017 brought a beautiful dusting of snow on the Ventana Mountains above Big Sur Valley and the Big Sur River water shed.

Sunrise clouds and snowy mountains.

The Ventanas dusted from the top of Terrace Creek.

Slide on NCRR in Post Creek Drainage

View up the road under fallen redwood tree.

Looking up from what was the North Coast Ridge Road.

Looking down towards Post Creek.

Lower end of the slide.

Soberanes Fire: Burn-off opperation North Caost Ridge Road

In an effort to prevent the Soberanes Fire from rushing in on the Big Sur community South of the Big Sur River, a burn-off was carried out From the Kucher Trail South, through Terrace Creek, to the back side of Castro Canyon. Today the burn-off continues South from where they left off Thursday.

Fire crews begin burn-off East side of the North Coast Ridge Road. Top of Stone Ridge.

Sequence shot of a Sky Crane dropping fire retardant to tie off South end of burn-off operation on North Coast Ridge Road.  Timber Top can be seen in background. This is just over the ridge from the top of Castro Canyon.

 Smoke from the burn-off blocking the view of Mt. Manuel and Post Summit. Island Mtn. can be seen at center surrounded by smoke with the peaks of the Ventana range protruding above. Taken from Coast Ridge Road between Deangulo Trail and the Boronda Trail.

 Sky Crane dropping fire retardant.

 Island Mountain, in the heart of the Big Sur River watershed, surrounded by smoke.

 Sky crane heading out to refill after dropping fire retardant.

Looking NorthWest from Timber Top/Boronda Trail and the North Coast Ridge Road.

 Looking NorthWest from the top of the Deangulo Trail 2E07/Pardington Ridge. Notice the large fire break at left keeping the West side safe from the incoming Soberanes Fire.

Soberanes Fire: Aug 8th

View from above Riverside Campground at 2:00 am towards Pheneger creek and Juan Higuera Creek

View from Coast Ridge Road of Southern face of Mt Manuel.

 Ridge between Pheneger Creek and Juan Higuera Creek

Soberanes Fire Reached Big Sur River WaterShed

4:00 am Sunday morning, day 17 of the Soberanes Fire, flames can be seen descending into the Big Sur River watershed to the East of Mt Manuel. Also visible at the top of Juan Higuera Creek watershed.

 4:04am from N. Coast Ridge Road

 4:08am Near NCRR and Terace Creek Trail

4:27am Our home lower left and flame licking the East face of Mt. Manuel at right

Mike Bleck working late on fire clearance with his mastication machine 

 CalFire and the USFS have collaborated in amazing way to prepare fire breaks atop the Coast Ridge Road. Looking East from the top of Graves Canyon watershed.

This was the view Friday mid morning from the top of Terrace Creek Trail and the N. Coast Ridge Road, looking towards the Ventana Cones.

Smoke from Soberanes Fire Continued

Panoramic Series #19: Soberanes Fire Smoke in Big Sur Valley

The wind was blowing hard when I took this series of images this. 82F at 9pm with strong shifting winds. 6,500 acres burned and 5% containment last report. Palo Calorado and the Carmel Highlands have been evacuated.

Panoramis Series #18: The Ventana Mountains, Big Sur

Mt. Manuel & The Ventana Mountain

NIght Sky

 Recently, I had an old friend, whom I studied with at the Brooks Institute, come and stay with us in Big Sur. Arnaldo and I became inspired to revert back to our days of late night photo shoots and set out to photograph the night sky.

For those of you who have yet to try this, shooting with a high ISO of 1600, slow shutter speed like 30 sec. and the fastest aperture your glass can deliver. With a little post processing, the results are stunning.

For these two images, we used a flashlight to illuminate the apple tree from 90º camera left. This added an interesting twist to the foreground elements.