August 12 // 12:53AM
White Mountains // California
If you stand in the bottom of Owens Valley and look north or south, you’ll see two different sets of mountains tower over you on both sides. One side is majestically rugged and snow capped, the other set of mountains, to the west, are rounded, largely uninteresting, and pale in beauty compared to their neighbor on the other side of the valley.
These are called the White Mountains, and they have one very special feature. The top of these mountains are home to the oldest living trees on the planet, and they’re the reason I went.
My friend, Kevin, and I made our way onto the crest of mountains to scout for a subject. A tree. I wanted to isolate a tree, at night, on the starry sky above. There were lots of options, and as I walked the ridge line, there were several candidates. I thought about the direction I’d want to shoot, and the location of the camera relative to the tree.
The tops of these mountains are largely devoid of features, just some rocky outcrops, scrub grasses, and these ancient trees. Some of the living trees on these hilltops are 4000 years old, pre-dating the pyramids in Egypt. Almost every tree is different, usually twisted and gnarled with stobbs and limbs jutting out in different direction.
Once I had found the one, I got my gear ready to come back at night.
It was comfortable in the night air. I positioned myself in the spot on the mountains that I had scouted before, at the tree I had chosen. It’s quiet up there, at midnight- so peaceful. I really love these moments of quiet, calm, photography in nature.
As I found my position, I looked up to see that clouds were starting to roll in, but after the initial disappointment, I decided that they actually added a dramatic layering to what would have been a somewhat emotionless photograph. In between the clouds, the sky lit up with tiny bright lights. I took several photos as the clouds rolled through each one different than the last, and all of them revealing a new set of stars.