Flying Over Silver Lake

 So after June Lake I drove over to Silver Lake. There was something special I wanted out of this one, but unfortunately I was a week or two late in getting it. Still went ahead anyways to fly around this lake.

I have shown Silver Lake in the past because it is a great spot for fall colors. I've never been quite satisfied with anything I have done here because of a sunlight. I show why in the next few pictures. 

So, I have had this type of picture before in the fall. The issue in the upper left hand corner is a lot of sunlight hits this area in a way that comes across as haze or smoke. I purposely flew the drone a lot more to the left to do the best I could to avoid the angle that gets that, but you can see it is still there. I meant to come back here in October to get a shot like this again, but that did not work out this time. 

Trying to get the right time of the day and best season for this shot is challenging for me in flights or just taking normal pictures on the ground. However, this shot was really secondary to what I was trying to achieve at this lake.

 The above is Horsetail Falls which I have hiked by to Gem Lake back in 2010. This was sort of the goal of my flying around here. The water had been gushing out from Agnew Lake during the month of July; I believe that was controlled by man made mechanisms and not something from nature. They were releasing water that had been snow/ice back there. I saw pictures of it and hoped to get this huge amount of water gushing over on video. I was too lake and this was what I got. Still it was fun doing this. Btw, in the video, this is the reason I hang out over here for a while. 

Finally, this is the other shot of June Lake I wanted from the other side:

Not bad. I took a few other pictures. Lots of water around, lots of boats fishing, etc. I was very relaxed doing this one.

Flying Over Silver Lake 4K (Youtube Video)

Silver Lake (The Silmaril Series)

In the last blog I mentioned that taking pictures in a southern direction during the fall off the June Lake Loop you face a barely rising sun. I faced that here at Silver Lake.

 I tried to work with this drone shot in Photoshop, but I did not like the results of anything. So, I just kept this pretty close to what you see above.

I will continue this series at a later date. There is a project that I am working on that should be interesting, but I do not know how long it will take for me to get it done. I want to put most of my time and effort into that right now.

So, until then...see you later down the trail.

The Quest for a Gem (Silver Lake)

(GPS: N37° 46.930 W119° 07.710)

This is the first of a few blogs that will cover what I am calling The Quest for a Gem hike. After driving along the June Lake Loop past Grant Lake we ended up at the Rush Creek trailhead. I expected this one to be a moderate hike with some elevation, but something that could be done in a few hours.

Not to far from the trailhead I passed a stream with some tree cover. Obviously, this was an autumn hike with all those leaves on the ground.

Once passed some of the homes, not too far from the trailhead, the trail rises some. SR 158, the June Lake Loop, runs right by the trail at this point. You can see part of Silver Lake.
I have seen photographers at Silver Lake early in the morning close to where we started while driving through in the past. On those days they are trying to capture the mist look it can have in the morning. As I got higher I looked back to where I started and got to see more of Silver Lake.
In the above picture, if you just continue looking to the right and just past the lake you get the following. An assortment of autumn:
Looking up ahead I could see a waterfall to the left, but a man made structure in the middle.

What is interesting about this hike is you cross into Ansel Adams Wilderness right as you start going uphill; it is not too far ahead of picture #2 above. However, of all the Eastern Sierra hikes I have done, this is the one that had many man made structures on the way that are still used. In the next blog I will mention more about this.

The Quest for a Gem (Youtube Version)