Bodie Photography and Photographer's Day, June 2005

(Click on the highlighted images or links below.)

After a great winter, it seemed like a good time to shoot irises blooming in Bodie,
so MikeS and I signed up for a Bodie Photographer's Day for extra access to town.
Check out the Friends of Bodie for more information.

I went up first; MikeS was to join me the next day. I drove up after work in a windy, spitting late season snow storm.
I crawled over Sonora Pass with barely a cars' length visibility, and spent the night at a picnic area just the other side.
Next morning as the storm cleared, Leavitt Meadow and Sonora Bridge picnic area were gorgeous in the clear air.
The irises at Sonora Bridge were just coming up.

After a mostly-hiking ski (off-and-on again snow cover) from Tioga Road to Saddlebag Lake and back, I headed out for Bodie.
I passed through town and up the Geiger Grade, to camp in a sheep pasture. Fortunately, no sheep had visited yet!
There were great views east over Bodie to the White Mountains from the little ridge behind camp.

After an uneventful afternoon and dinner, that same view was even better...

MikeS arrived late that night; early the next morning we drove down to Bodie for sunrise...

...only to discover yet again that sunrise there isn't so great, since Bodie itself sits in the bottom of a bowl.
It's just ffrrreeezzziing cold! (Note to self - skip sunrise next time.)

Still, once the sun made it into downtown Bodie, the photography started in earnest.
These images show a window just before, then just as the sun lighted it.

I've done this before, so to be different, I mostly stuck with architectural details and shapes.

Mid-morning we went back to camp for lunch and a little 4-wheelin'.
The rangers had warned us about this spot, but after we got up we thought we'd done the hard part.
Turns out coming back down got us.

After a friendly ranger pulled us out and we changed a leaking tire, we relaxed in camp and had dinner.

After an early dinner, sunset photography was next. And sunset photography is usually very good in Bodie.

I took the north road out of Bodie that evening and camped with a loverly view of Mono Lake.
Next morning I left for home...