#79: Old Scans from The White Mountains and The Bristlecones

Here are some photos of The White Mountains and The Bristlecone Pine Forest that we scanned from slides.

That’s Randy McCoy, our son, adventuring around in the Bristlecones. We figure these pictures date back to around 1970.

These were taken on my old Leica and the film sure gives them a cool tone. I still see some of these fallen trees in the same spot today. I’m sure they looked like that long before we arrived too.  Not much changes up there.

-Dave

Steven BourelleSeptember 3, 2010 - 7:45 am

Cool Dave. I love your old slide images. It’s amazing how slow things change in the Bristlecones. I bet you could shoot those exact same images today. It’s a very timeless place.

We’re Back!

We had a little problem with the site last night but we’re back in business. Sorry about that, and once again, check out Dave on Facebook here.

-Brandon

Dave McCoy on Facebook

It’s been a long time coming, but we finally signed up for a Facebook account.

We’re just figuring out how this works, but here is the link.

Add me as a friend and as we learn how to do this, the account will become more active. I’ll use it to share photos and keep in contact with everyone, so this will be a cool thing.

Who says 95-year-olds can’t learn this kind of stuff?

-Dave

Steven BourelleSeptember 3, 2010 - 7:47 am

You’re an inspiration to us all my friend!! I’ve sent my friend request :-)

BronwenSeptember 2, 2010 - 1:56 pm

Your pictures truly sing to my soul and bring tears to my eyes!!! You are one amazing man!!!

#78: Mule Team Training and A Beautiful Sunset near Bishop…

Roma and I went out on a late-afternoon Rhino trip last week and we ran into Bobby Tanner training a team of young mules for his annual trip to the Wagon Days parade in Sun Valley, Idaho. It is a Labor Day tradition for Bobby, and he takes the entire 20-Mule Team out for the event. Gary, our son, usually trucks the team out there from Bishop.

From there, the sunset was great with the sun’s rays shooting through the clouds above Mt. Tom and the crest.

Enjoy this short one, and check back in in the next day or so. Roma and I went on a trip along the Owens River near Mammoth yesterday and we got some great shots of the valley so stop back by soon.

-Dave

Here is Bobby, training the mules. He’s towing a large tire as well, which smoothes out the road.

adminAugust 31, 2010 - 12:37 pm

Thanks a lot Vic. I wasn’t sure what was going to come out of those but I’m happy with how they came out.

VicAugust 30, 2010 - 9:19 pm

*Very* nice pix of the clouds, Dave. The last one is especially well composed.

#77: More from last weekend’s trip into the Bishop Basin

Here are a few more shots from last saturday’s trip in The Buttermilks. It was such a great day, just look at the smiles on everyone’s face. It may be getting late in the Summer, but at high elevation, some flowers are just starting to bloom.

-Dave

Here are the mountains on the corner of Mt. Humphrey.

Here is Mt. Humphrey, Basin Mountain, and most of the range right above Bishop. The yellow flowers may make people sneeze, but they sure are beautiful. Roma is feeling so good! She ran up the road, turned around, and said, “Take my picture!”Here is Penny blending in with the environment. 

#76: Family and Friends in The Buttermilks and Cardinal Village

David Barrett, our grandson, came up last weekend and he always makes sure we go to Cardinal Village when he is in town. The weekend was great for it; there was some cloud cover that made for perfect temps and near-perfect lighting for pictures.

This one is crazy. If you like rocks and like to examine things, you’ll enjoy this one. There’s a million different faces and cracks and everything you could imagine. Here is David teaching his daughter to fly. Now she just needs one of those squirrel suits. This one stuck out because the shadow turned the hillside black, but everything else is in some kind of sunlight. Here are Roma and I, climbing the hill. Here is another Mammoth cloud. Sometime soon, we’re going to put all our Mammoth cloud pictures together and see which one is the best. Here are Roma, David and I headed to eat at Cardinal Village. This is Roma and Penny playing around and old, burnt tree. Living objects in a lifeless forest…Giving life…

More Info on our Fall Gallery in Hollywood

We’ve got the details in for our Fall Gallery in Southern California and I want you guys to be the first to see it. Many of you who frequent the site are from that area so it would be great if you came by to check it out.

It’s going to be called Wild Eyes in the Sierra Skies, photographs of the Eastern Sierra by ski pioneer Dave McCoy, and it will feature a collection of several of my favorite recent photos. The opening reception is on October 2nd from 5:00pm – 9:00pm at Harris & Ruble Gallery located at 6424 Santa Monica Blvd in Hollywood. The exhibition will run through November 3rd.

As it will be held at the beginning of autumn, many of the photos will be from my Fall colors collection. Some of the photos will be familiar to those of you who check our site often, and some will be brand new.

A portion of the proceeds from the photos will be split between the Mammoth Lakes Foundation and the Mammoth Ski and Snowboard Education Foundation

If anybody has any questions, email us, leave a comment, or call Laura or Maya at the Mammoth Ski Museum @ (760) 934-6592.

We hope some of our West Coast friends can stop by.

-Dave

Steve RyanSeptember 2, 2010 - 8:43 pm

Mr McCoy will you be at the opening In Oct? Some of us on the forums would like to plan A get together If we could meet you.

#75: Lake George, Crystal Crag, Horseshoe Lake, and the Mammoth Lakes Basin

A few weeks ago, we were asked by the Mammoth Lakes Foundation to make a picture of Crystal Crag for one of their donors. The plan is that I take the picture and Jill Kinmont Boothe will make a painting to match the photograph.

We did a gallery of my photos together with her paintings last year at the Mammoth Ski Museum, and it was a great success.

So on Sunday afternoon, Roma and I headed up to Mammoth to make it happen. The idea was to get the picture of Crystal Crag, but other beautiful things got in my way so we ended up with more. We started at Twin Lakes, then went up to Lake Mary, Lake George, and ended at Horseshoe Lake.

There were lots and lots of people. It made it difficult to get a picture, but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. They were riding bikes and horses, fishing, taking pictures and enjoying themselves.

We also checked out the bike trail that the town built that goes up to the Lakes Basin. It was really fantastic–a beautiful thing to see so many riders using it.

That’s all for now. Read the captions below and look for Jill’s interpretation of the picture in the coming weeks. We’ll post them both when she’s done.

-Dave
Here is Crystal Crag with Twin Lakes in the foreground. I’ve skied, hiked and fished all around the crest behind the Crag. This is Lake Mary with the backside of the Sherwins behind. This is Twin Lakes from near the Lake Mary outlet. This is the Mammoth Crest with the trees near Horseshoe Lake in the foreground. The trees are dead due to high levels of Carbon Dioxide in the soil. The gas in the soil in the surrounding trees has about 1-percent C02. The soil in this area has between 20 and 70-percent C02. The C02 is a product of the volcanic activity going underneath the entire Owens Valley. Here is Horseshoe Lake, looking toward Crystal Crag. 

adminAugust 19, 2010 - 9:33 am

Hey Roger. We’ll put oars on a gondola and give you a ride across Horseshoe!
-Dave

Roger LinkAugust 18, 2010 - 11:20 am

Great Pictures Dave. Many a walk, hike and ride around this area.

Roger