Patriarch Grove, White Mountains of California

[Bill De Jager]

I was recently in the White Mountains of California, well-known for their Great basin bristlecone pines, Pinus longaeva. This species, one of three similar species in its group, grows only in high mountains in the central portion of the western United States, from east-central California to central Utah. It includes the oldest known individual non-clonal organisms, with ages documented up to 5063 years old.

 

The White Mountains, one of five mountain ranges in the U.S. by that name, are a high desert range with elevations from 1200 meters at their base up to 4344 meters at White Mountain Peak. The combination of extreme cold, extreme dryness, and minimal soil at their higher elevations results in trees that can live for millennia. Environmental conditions result in resinous pine wood not rotting as would be normal elsewhere, but instead being very slowly sandblasted away by snow and sand carried by the high winds of winter which can reach 150 km/h on occasion.

 

There are two well-known bristlecone pine groves in these mountains. The Schulman Grove can be reached by paved road, but the Patriarch Grove is located at the end of a 24-km rough gravel road. It's at an elevation of around 3450 meters and is an amazingly desolate location.

 

While in the general area, I finally made it out to this site. However, was too frazzled by hurrying to catch the light, prolonged rough four-wheeling, and an empty stomach (having left from camp at dawn after a restless night) to be in good shape to photograph. I will have to return again under better circumstances. However, no camping is allowed anywhere within many km to preserve the existing downed wood which often is thousands of years old.

 

As an example of my condition while there, I somehow failed to record my shots in IR using a 1000 nm filter on a modified D7000. I still have no idea where the shots went! I think I remember looking at them on the LCD screen. Certainly the effect created was most striking, but maybe that's what I was seeing while in live view.

 

I did manage to capture a few shots in visible light and UV. The former were taken on an unmodified D7000 with a polarizing filter, and the latter were taken on a wide-spectrum D5100 with the 45/2.8 GN lens and a Baader Venus filter.

 

Here is a general view of the area in visible light. Processing the photo was tricky. The combination of very high elevation and thin atmosphere, coupled with very light rock and deep shadows, created a very contrasty scene. I wanted to retain a sense of this while making the photo more accessible to the viewer.

 

 

And here is a similar view in HDR UV, consisting of four photos merged together in Photoshop Elements and desaturated. I appreciate the advice I've received here on color balance with UV photos, and at a later date I'll sit down to get that part under my belt. For the moment I'll use black and white.

 

[DaveO]

Hi Bill,

 

Before I started my UV journey I had a Pentax K20D converted for IR by the replacement of the UV/IR cut filter with a type 87 IR pass filter directly over the sensor so when you look through the viewfinder you see normal colours and the IR appears on the image captured. I was captured myself by IR film back in the day... so this is an ideal way of working for me in landscapes, but of course not here as it's not UV. I must get around to doing some UV landscapes, I like the contrast of yours.

 

Cheers,

 

Dave

[Bill De Jager]

Thanks, Dave. Actually, the D7000 I tried to take IR photos with is modified internally for 800 nm. I added a 1000nm filter to get a more extreme effect, which could be seen in live view. The problem may have been in using the remote mode, which may not have worked properly due to user error. In other words, I thought I was taking photos when I actually was not. This is very unfortunate as the location is probably about nine hours away from my house, and either now is or very soon will be closed by snow for the winter. In all fairness to myself, I was operating with both too little sleep and at a high altitude with little acclimation. I'll have to go next year, and spend a whole day there to catch both sunrise and sunset.

 

The contrast is helped by the scene being very contrasty and having little vegetation. Vegetation usually looks rather dull in UV when viewed at a distance. Using HDR also is a plus as it tones down the overly bright sky one tends to get in UV.

 

As Bjorn has demonstrated, UV landscapes tend to be hazier in appearance. Between these haze and vegetation issues, I'm thinking that I should head out to Death Valley early next year for some UV photography in the rugged canyons there, where UV might give good results relative to more vegetated locations.

[nfoto]

The second images portrays well what I consider "UV alpine landscape" - you can still see the horizon because the air is thin and clear, but there is a veiling effect taking place entirely unlike the stark sharpness you observe with IR. You managed to give the pine trees a nice dark rendition as well.

 

I certainly would like to see such landscapes in false UV colours as well. Next year perhaps?

[Bill De Jager]

Thank you, Bjørn. I actually have accumulated a fair number of UV shots. Most of these were test shots of no consequence, but a few I have posted in black and white here and on nikongear. When I learn proper color UV then I'll be able to go back and see what I can do with these shots.

 

I also hope to get out to the desert over New Year's. In that environment (fewer clouds, low humidity, little vegetation, and reflective rocks) and at latitudes of 35-37 degrees, there should still be enough UV to photograph static subjects reasonably well even near the winter solstice, albeit with longer exposures.

[Bill De Jager]

Well, I finally found the deep IR shots! Just for comparison with the other two, here is approximately the same scene with a 1000nm IR filter. The lens was the Voigtlander 40mm f/2, the camera was a D7000 modified by LifePixel, and the filter was a Heliopan RG1000.

 

http://pic50.picturetrail.com/VOL437/1642984/24174024/408114729.jpg

[Andrea B.]

Hi Bill -

 

I just returned to UVP after a brief hiatus and am trying to catch up on all the new posts.

 

It's nice to see some UV landscapes being posted, especially from the ever fascinating White Mountains with those amazing bristlecone pines. I enjoyed reading your info about all that.

 

Do you ever get altitude sickness when roaming around there? I have to watch out for that meself. But I have always wanted to visit the bristlecones. My plan is to spend a few days in Colorado at about 7500 feet to build up a tiny bit of resistance before going higher. Last time I was here in Colorado (where I will be for a month), we went up to about 12000 feet after I had been here a week and I did fairly well. Aside from being out of breath after climbing just a small rise. :D But I don't mind that as long as I don't get nauseated.

 

I have also been combining exposures for UV landscapes - at the least, one of the sky and one of everything else, but maybe more. The UV landscape can have such a huge 'dynamic range'. HDR as it is typically practiced would probably look terrible, but you've managed a good effect without artifacts.

[Bill De Jager]

Hi Bill -

 

I just returned to UVP after a brief hiatus and am trying to catch up on all the new posts.

 

It's nice to see some UV landscapes being posted, especially from the ever fascinating White Mountains with those amazing bristlecone pines. I enjoyed reading your info about all that.

 

Do you ever get altitude sickness when roaming around there? I have to watch out for that meself. But I have always wanted to visit the bristlecones. My plan is to spend a few days in Colorado at about 7500 feet to build up a tiny bit of resistance before going higher. Last time I was here in Colorado (where I will be for a month), we went up to about 12000 feet after I had been here a week and I did fairly well. Aside from being out of breath after climbing just a small rise. :D But I don't mind that as long as I don't get nauseated.

 

I have also been combining exposures for UV landscapes - at the least, one of the sky and one of everything else, but maybe more. The UV landscape can have such a huge 'dynamic range'. HDR as it is typically practiced would probably look terrible, but you've managed a good effect without artifacts.

 

Hi Andrea,

 

The bristlecones in Colorado are a different species (Pinus aristata) that does not get as old, probably because the mountains where it grows are much moister which allows rot to occur in trees which are partially dead. You will also not generally find the same rich, warm tone (in visible light) in the dead wood. The only areas where I've ever seen these kinds of colors in weathered dead wood are in areas with severe annual summer drought. Once you have a modest amount of summer rainfall dead wood is generally just gray, though often still with much character.

 

In North America, this region of "warm" dead trees seems to run at high elevations from the Sierra Nevada east into the Great Basin (at least as far east as the Snake Range in Great Basin National Park, Nevada) and south to the high mountains of southern California (the San Gabriels, San Bernardinos, and San Jacintos) which at their highest elevations have timberline-type trees and ecological conditions.

 

BTW, here is a photo that shows the bristles for which the tree is named: http://www.bouldertr...inus-aristata/. The bristles stay on the cones in the Rocky Mountain trees and fall off in the Great Basin trees, which is one of a number of differences between the two species. Another is the resin 'dandruff' you can see on the needles in the photo, another unique feature of the Rocky Mountain trees.

 

The White Mountains are one of two locations, first Mt. Whitney in the Sierra Nevada and then White Mountain Peak in the Whites, where I got really enervating cases of altitude sickness while hiking years ago. In the first instance, reaching 4200 meters elevation seemed to get me. I continued up to the peak at 4400 meters before descending, and I didn't recover until a few hours spent at 3700 meters where I camped that night. In the latter case I had camped at 4000 meters the night before; I was surprised by what happened the next day when I climbed the peak (which wasn't much higher), especially since it happened on the way back down as a delayed reaction. I dropped my camping plans and just kept on going down to much lower elevations... all the way down to 1200 meters, a hot shower, dinner, and bed. That helped!

 

I have not seemed to get altitude sickness while driving at high altitudes, but I have a couple times when I then became very active after little acclimation time. All I can say is that if you go up to a high elevation by driving and then start hiking, take it easy and closely monitor your body's condition. If you start to feel a bit off, immediately slow down your activity.

 

Thanks for your comments about my UV photo. All I know at this point is the feature in Photoshop Elements which allows you to combine multiple photos into one. That's what I've been using all along as it gives decent results. No halos that I've noticed yet, and none of that awful HDR look that makes me cringe.

 

I'll probably sign up for Adobe's promotional $9.99 rate for the full Photoshop program, which expires soon. Or would Photo Ninja be a useful substitute since I ought to get it anyway for color UV work?

[Andrea B.]

Bill, I hesitate to make any strong recommendation about photo software as it seems to lead to the dreaded editor wars.

I encourage anyone to use whatever photo converter/editor works best for them.

 

And, the photo software choice is so dependent on what you personally want to do with your UV work.

 

I can tell you what I use currently and briefly describe why I like it. As always YMMV.

• Photo Ninja for Nikon or Pentax (or other) raw conversions and colour profiling.
  I can so easily create the colour and white balance profiles for the standardized botanical work I'm doing with Bjørn in this app using Color Checker Passport. PN has some amazing sliders for tweaking the initial exposure of a photo to perfection and bringing out detail. PN also has the excellent Noise Ninja for removing noise. PN has no local editing capability, only global.
  

• Capture NX2 for Nikon raw conversions and performing local edits of TIFFs made in Photo Ninja.
  I've used NX2 for a long time. It is simple, straightforward and does both global edits and local edits. The color points are immensely useful. The brush works a treat for local edits. Each "edit step" in NX2 is like a "layer". The only thing NX2 doesn't have is a channel mixer, but then I've never needed one because I use the colour points instead - works equally well.
  

• Photoshop Elements for occasional need to match up a UV shot with its Vis counterpart using Difference layers, for occasional need to use the Cloning tool, for making multispectral stacks, for occasional need to add text. That's about it.
  

• Photo Mechanic as a front end importer, namer, culler and viewer.
  

You mentioned UV color work. As all the UV color is false, you may use any color scheme you wish in your own UV work - unless you want to make a formal botanical presentation here on UVP. Then the standardized blue/yellow/green UV palette which Bjørn and I worked out is required. But it does not necessarily require Photo Ninja to do that.

 

Hope this helps.

 

***

 

Thanks for your additional comments about the Bristlecones !! So interesting. :D

 

And also about the altitude sickness. That's such a weird thing. I, too, have delayed reactions. When I come to 7500 feet in Colorado from the 150 foot level at which I live back East, I feel headachy and slightly sleepless but basically OK until about day 5. Then I get some sinus and lung effects which seem to require spending about half a day at a slightly lower elevation. This must reinflate my sinuses and lungs and get a little more oxygen in the bloodstream or something. Whatever it is, I feel better after my half-day down-alt and then can go back up to 7500.

[Bill De Jager]

Thanks for the quick summary, Andrea!

 

My altitude sickness on Mt. Whitney happened on day 5 of a high-altitude backpacking trip. I had thought I'd be acclimated by then, but no.