Marmot Mountain Works (Berkeley)

The Milky Way _ Hot Creek This capture took many years in assemble. I was interested in night time shooting back in 2017 and 2018, the Hot Creek near Mammoth wa...s a great opportunity. My adult kids and I made a few attempts that summer, eventually landing a good image of Milky Way using my Star-Tracker too. But after June there were many many smokey days, most trips resulting in no captures of the creek area. I really wanted a luminous image, bright enough to see the old Hot Creek. As always, time passed and passed. Finally in January 2021, there was a warm spell in the weather, and I remembered my attempts to shoot a night time image in this spot. The winter the skies in Mammoth are crystal clear day and night. I chose an evening a few days after the new moon where foreground had some light, avoiding problems with noise in the capture, and allowing the natural shadows to shine. Like most night time captures, this image was stitched together using at least two images from the same location, years apart in this case! I am thinking this is a good image matching my expectations. Ad as always, our hearts and prayers to all those who have been affected by COVID. All the best, Vern and Margaret WWW.VERNCLEVENGER.COM We are a 20% sale for the months of February and March. This on the webpage. And a 30% sale on the "Milky Way and Hot Creek." above. And I like to personally talk with every client. My business has built one client at a time over thirty five years. And THANK YOU 760 934 5100

"Human beings, vegetables or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible player." ~Albert Einstein

Alex Honnold making the first free solo ascent of the notoriously burly Freestone next to Yosemite Falls. It’s rated 5.11 for the overhanging off width but it w...as the slick 5.10d slab move that had everyone holding their breath. When I asked him about it afterwards, he said I just didn’t think about it, trusted the foot and moved through it. Shot on assignment for National Geographic and Free Solo See more

@franciscoporcella going left at Jaws Because this big wave season hasn’t produced enough mindblowing moments EVERYBODY is changing the game right now @bluewavemaui

From my 4x5 film archive, taken in 1982 which was the first year I started using large format with my Wista 4x5 metal field camera. Grasses and Cloud Reflection...s, Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California 1982 #largeformatphotography #4x5film #4x5photography #viewcamera #mud #viewcameraphotography

RIP... https://www.theguardian.com//20/dec/07/doug-scott-obituary

Another fine image from the Marmot diaspora, Cary Gaynor

"It is not that I am uninterested in telling visual stories about people and their everyday lives. I just like to leave this kind of work mostly to others. What... I prefer is to trace the hidden roots of humanity deeply embedded in nature." ~Wynn Bullock Discoveries of ancient human presence excite me. Often I'll pause to imagine what their lives were like in these places, what it was like to be a child growing up there, having this be their playground, their world to explore, the local plants, animals, and geography to discover and to commune with, as I have with the fields and wild life around my home in my own youth. Someone asked me if in such places I feel the presence of the people who occupied themsome residual essence of their having been there, lived there, their stories unfold there. I don't. Of all the ironies, such a feeling of the presence of other people in such remote and now quiet places, would have made them less desirable to me to visit. Indeed, I take comfort in evidence that these places have returned to their former natural state, home to other lives. To me finding such art is like finding a rare fossil: evidence of something interesting that transpired, and that teaches me something about how I, and the world today, came to be. It is the same for me with works of art. Those that fascinate me often make me think of the inner worlds of the artists who made them: their thoughts, philosophies, inspirations. But there is not one I would want to have spent time with in person. In my own work I strive to channel my own ideas and inspiration into images that may lead others to elevated moods and thoughts. It is my way of interacting and forming relationships with others while still maintaining my own isolation.

Kendra Cunov...wise woman, Youmay find her at The Art of Fearless Intimacy

"We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. And this has been based on the even flimsier assumption that we could kn...ow with any certainty what was good even for us. We have fulfilled the danger of this by making our personal pride and greed the standard of our behavior toward the world to the incalculable disadvantage of the world and every living thing in it. And now, perhaps very close to too late, our great error has become clear. It is not only our own creativity our own capacity for life that is stifled by our arrogant assumption; the creation itself is stifled. We have been wrong. We must change our lives, so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and to learn what is good for it. We must learn to cooperate in its processes, and to yield to its limits. But even more important, we must learn to acknowledge that the creation is full of mystery; we will never entirely understand it. We must abandon arrogance and stand in awe. We must recover the sense of the majesty of creation, and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. For I do not doubt that it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it." ~Wendell Berry

I'm home for a couple of days after being outside for about two weeks, trying to make the most of this beautiful time of year after a brutal summer. There's som...ething poignant and surreal about so much delicate beauty mixed and woven with so many signs of drought and decline. Many trees I used to know that seemed healthy until a year or two ago, are now dead or dying. Lakes and creeks have dried out, and there is no escaping the haze, smoke, and yellow light. It has been an emotional time, and I'm headed back to the desert tomorrow for more solitary time before the leaves are gone and winter sets. This image in memory of Jack Curran. "My compositions spring from my sorrows. Those that give the world the greatest delight were born of my deepest griefs." ~Franz Schubert

Bob Akka, Marmot alumni and incurable funhog.

My winter schedule is starting to take shape! Almost all of the avy courses I'm teaching this winter will be with Alpenglow Expeditions at Squaw Valley. If you... have interest you can contact Alpenglow directly: 1-877-873-5376 or [email protected] or you can always shoot me an email at: [email protected] (As always, private courses & bc skiing are always an option) Till then, pray for snow.. See more

Tahoe BC Ski Friends, If you haven't already added your letter of support there is still time. We're almost there! Click this link for more info: http://tahoeba...ckcountryalliance.org/calls-to-action/ Here's the latest: TBA is in final stages of approval of a revised proposal to fund the repaving and winter plowing of the West End Beach parking lot on Donner Lake to maintain this space as a public and free lot for backcountry skiers. Public support for the West End Beach Winter Parking Project has been strong, but we need your help to push this over the finish line. The TDRPD will be voting on the project at their next board meeting and you can help by sending in letters of support (if you have not done so already) to [email protected] and attending the next board meeting in person to show how much this means to the community. Truckee Donner Recreation and Parks Department Board Meeting: September 24th, 6pm-9pm. Community Recreation Center, 10981 Truckee Way, Truckee, CA 96161 -------------------------------------------------------------- Example letter: Dear Park and Recreation Board of Directors, I strongly urge you to approve the West End Beach Winter Parking Project. This public/private partnership is the logical solution for all parties involved. Benefits to the Community: -Financial benefit to the RPD: West End Beach gets repaved at the applicants expense. Overall, net revenue generator for agency. -Public's benefit: Safe and legal access to popular public lands. Decreases illegal activity in the residential neighborhood. Provides for safer backcountry use and education due to centralized trailhead. -Area homeowners benefit: Decreased illegal activity in the neighborhood. Decreased vehicular traffic in the neighborhood. The revised location at West End Beach keeps vehicular traffic out of the neighborhood. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of this proposal. Truckee Donner Land Trust

"Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so that each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry." ~Richard Feynman

From Ed Cesnalis

Your moment of Zen ~ Guy Tal

The torch has been passed long live ASI and the legacy that Bela Vadasz has given us.

As the Boy Scouts say...Be prepared