December through March, 2005

Clammers at Morro Bay use a long suction tube to hunt for clams, at sunset along the central coast of California. The sun is dropping behind the massive sand dunes that enclose the west side of the bay.

California condors are the largest flying animals in North America, with wingspans that can stretch to 10 feet and weights that tip the scale at 25 pounds. This condor zooms over a ridge in the remote Topatopa Mountains, northwest of Los Angeles. Notice the antennas on the wings that transmit data to biologists.

State and federal governemnt protection brought the condors back from the brink of extinction. From about 15 birds in 1980, now more than one hundred condors populate our earth, with scores of them soaring into the skies above Califorina, Baja California (Mexico), and Arizona.

This is the view looking through the windshield of my car while sitting in heavy traffic, trying to come into Los Angeles from the north, on the Interstate Five freeway. (My hat is tipped to pbaser Phil Douglis for helping me see this picture.)

The view from my front yard, in the historic South Carthay neighborhood of Los Angeles

The Pala Mission

This is the last working California mission, ministering to American Indians - the rest of the missions in the state are museum pieces. The Pala Mission looks just about the way it did when it was built in 1816. The mission is at the base of the Palomar Mountains, along Highway 76, east of the Interstate 15 freeway.

Snow in California
Yosemite Valley

Orange Grove on the outskirts of the city of Redlands

Goats near the ranching community of Parkfield, the "Earthquake Capitol of the World" in the Coast Range mountains.

More than 5,000 wind turbines crank out the power in and around Tehachapi Pass, in the mountains east of the city of Bakersfield.

The chairlift at the Mount Waterman. The ski area is in the San Gabriel Mountains, about an hour and a half north of Los Angeles.

Flowers - Hollywood Farmers Market

Photographed in rural Catheys Valley, west of Yosemite National Park, a few days before the end of the year.

This morning, January 1, 2005, I was in Yosemite National Park, walking through the fresh fallen snow in the Valley, enjoying the wonderful views of the granite walls and peaks that were occasionally revealed as the sun broke through the clouds. I am a very lucky person. May the world be more peaceful
and safer for everyone in the new year.

North Dome, Yosemite National Park, viewed from Stoneman Meadow at the end of the day, at the end of 2004.

An oak sits in the twilight in Yosemite Valley

After a storm in Yosemite Valley, the temperature rose enough to melt some of the snow. A drop of water formed at the base of a pine needle.

Sisters take a break on the trail to the Freeman Grove, Sequoia National Monument

There are dozens of mansions in the city of Redlands, at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains of southern California. The mansions were built on the profits of the citrus industry that once reigned supreme in the southern half of the state. This is the Kimberly Crest House, the most eleaborate and probably the largest of all the mansions. The house is surrounded by a magnificent garden.

California Poppy Preserve, Antelope Valley, north of the La Liebre Mountains.

His First Catch - Sequoia National Monument

I don't like to fish, but at least this happy angler ate his catch for dinner

The beautiful Arc Bridge, on Highway 154, is in the Coast Range Mountains beyond Santa Barbara; Old Stage Coach Road is visible in the shadows. Without taking the old road, which gives a look back at the the canyon, it is impossible to see the bridge, particulary while driving over it.

A rattlesnake crosses the road in Carrizo Plain National Monument.

Train tracks in the late afternoon sun (and with some serious underexposure) near the famed Tehachapi Loop, in the mountains east of Bakersfield.

Road side shrine, near Buttonwillow, in the Central Valley of California.

More examples by another pbaser: http://www.pbase.com/dazedgonebye/descansos

Carrizo Plain National Monument.

Only Texas and Alaska produce more oil than California. Most of the petroleum in California comes the southwestern portion of the San Joaquien Valley, where this picture was made, in the hilly oilfields above the city of Taft.

Malibu Creek State Park, in the Santa Monica Mountains, is 25 miles from downtown Los Angeles by car. There is a short walk from the parking area to the creek, and there are miles of hiking and mountain biking trails over four thousand acres of backcountry. The park features rugged gorges, volcanic cliffs, meadows, woodland, waterfalls, rock pools and a two-acre lake. The land was once owned and divided between Ronald Reagan, Bob Hope and the 20th Century Fox film studio. The park was the backdrop for many films and television shows, including Planet of the Apes and M.A.S.H.

Non-native artichoke, Yosemite Valley. "This year the park service is planning to eradicate bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare), mullein (Verbascum thapsus), the ice artichoke (Cynara humongus) and other invasive non-native plants that threaten priority areas of Yosemite Valley." - 2005 park service bulletin.

The Kelso Dunes are more than 600 feet tall. They can be found near the remote community of Kelso, once an important watering stop for locomotives along the rail line. The overcast day made the landscape and old highway look almost painterly.

Sheep on the remote Carrizo Plain. Broken hills in the background are evidence of the San Andreas earthquake fault, which runs from north of San Francisco south into Mexico.

Morning light, El Capitan, Yosemite

El Capitan, Yosemite

Bottle art - a kind of folk art - can be found in the Mojave Desert on historic Route 66. between the towns of Victorville and Barstow (where I am going next week to conduct a photo safari).

Curvy Santa Rosa Creek Road travels east from the little town of Cambria, on the central coast of California, high into the Coast Range Mountains. This view, near the crest of the road, looks back down the canyon on a rainy afternoon.

An oil well pumps away in the hills above the city of Taft.

Hopper Mountain Condor reserve, Topa Topa Mountains
Look carefully - there's a condor sitting on the branch of a burned tree.

The old Ridge Route, north of Los Angeles. It's still possible to make the drive on this historic road between the community of Castic and the Antelope Valley.

The sun is about to set over Highway 94 and the Campo Valley, near the California border with Mexico.

Hidden Falls, Mountain Home state forest, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

This old Chevy truck hasn't run in decades. It's in the desert, near the community of Amboy, California.

Abandoned houses at Amboy, California, along historic Route 66.

Beware the ersatz roof-mounted canon, in the desert town of Barstow, (along Old Highway 58).

All would seem still at the Daggett Pioneer Cemetery, but ants sty busy excavating their colony.

I used a Plus 3 diopter and my on-camera flash, with a diffuser in front of the flash, to help me make this photograph. Depth of Field is very limited this close to my little subjects.

Cow and tractor at the Fiscallini farm, near Cambria, along the Central Coast of California.

Sunset at Cambria, along Moonstone Beach, along the Central Coast of California.

Yosemite Chapel

Tractor and stacked wine casks (the latter for sale!) near the ever-encroaching city of San Luis Obispo.

This is a picture of expansion tubes and a California quail at sunset, made near the little oil town of Maricopa. The expansion tubes help relieve potentially damaging uneven pressure in oil pipelines. A California quail, the state bird, sits atop the tubes.

Fern Spring - Smallest Waterfall in Yosemite

Wildflowers at the California state poppy preserve, in the Antelope Valley.