I made it out to the SRP a few weeks ago and was fortunate enough to hit it during an early morning storm. The Adobe Loop Trail, which was closed for research the last couple of times I've been to the plateau, is now open.
Weather
October 03, 2011
February 01, 2011
Top o' the peak
Here's a shot of Santiago peak from last October. It was dreary and rainy down below, and there was a full moon above, so fellow photographer Carl Garrard and I decided to drive up to the top of Saddleback and get above the drizzle. The tops of the overcast were over 5,000 feet, so we were lucky to break out before we reached the summit. Conditions were perfect for photography and after a couple of hours of shooting, we headed back into the abyss.
January 20, 2011
You can't get there from here
Here's a photo of Trabuco Creek Road on December 19, 2010 before the flooding. The U.S. Forest Service announced yesterday that the road will be closed at Trabuco Canyon Road for several months due to the road damage from the December storms. The concrete fords over Trabuco Creek were damaged and will need to be replaced.
The Trabuco Ranger District is requesting funds from the Emergency Relief for Federally Owned Roads (ERFO) fund from the Federal Highway Administration. Total damage in the Trabuco Ranger District is estimated at $1.5 million. The rain total in December at my house (Robinson Ranch) exceeded 14 inches - more than we receive in a typical year.
March 07, 2009
Trabuco Sunsets
For me, sunsets are among the more challenging landscape scenes to photograph. The back lit nature of sunsets increases the risk of lens flare, and careful technique is required for proper exposure of the sky and the foreground (usually by using a graduated neutral density filter or combining two differently-exposed shots in Photoshop) . This photo was shot from Trabuco Creek Road near the Trabuco Flyers RC airport.
Brilliant sunsets require mid-level or higher clouds, and a clear horizon. When I'm trying to determine when conditions are likely to be favorable for sunset photography,I look at the aviation weather forecasts. The weather forecasts you get from network TV are too vague. It's not good enough to know that it will be partly cloudy; you need to have a sense of the height of the cloud bases. If you want to know more about where to find and decipher the aviation weather forecasts, go to this link.
February 08, 2009
Photographing rainbows
I was hiking up Bell Ridge Trail yesterday afternoon when it started raining. I don't mind hiking in the rain as long as I have a rain jacket (and chaps if I will be hiking off trail), but once I looked back and noticed a clear horizon, I knew there would be a rainbow once the sun moved below the clouds. I decided to go back to the flat area where Bell View Tail intersects with Bell Ridge Trail and wait to photograph it.
Rainbows have a radius of 42 degrees from the antisolar point (the point opposite the sun), so you'll need a wide angle lens. A polarizer filter helps intensify the rainbow, but it can make it disappear if you aren't careful. If you do see a full rainbow, it may be best to shoot it twice, turning the polarizer 90 degrees after the first shot to intensify the rainbow and combine the two in post processing. That's what I did for this photo, but unfortunately the second (and subsequent) shots were ruined when rain got on the filter. Also, the polarizer doesn't help control the reflections off the moisture on the shrubs in the foreground since the filter is most effective when used at a 90 degree angle to the sun, and least effective when shooting directly into or away from the sun. The other challenge when trying to shoot a full rainbow is keeping your shadow out of the photo since you are shooting directly opposite the sun. Rather than using a cable release, I put the camera in timer mode and moved so my shadow would be out of the scene.
January 01, 2009
A wet winter - so far...
The rainfall total for the first half of the rain season (July-December) was 6.54 in. in Trabuco Canyon (at least at my house in Robinson Ranch). This is well above the average 1st half rainfall for the last few years. If the trend continues, it should provide a good spring wildflower bloom as well as a reasonably long fishing season on Trabuco Creek once it's stocked in late January or early February.
December 02, 2008
Wet Thanksgiving weekend
I aborted an early Thanksgiving morning hike due to the rain, but did make it out to the Trabuco Canyon Trail early Friday morning. Sierra and I had the trail to ourselves for the 4 mile hike. The drive back was not as peaceful with a number of testosterone-ridden adolescents in 4-wheel drives splashing through puddles along Trabuco Creek Road like 5 year olds their first time on a slip & slide. Private property borders the road from the turnoff at Trabuco Canyon Road to the national forest boundary several miles in, so expect to get cited for trespassing if you go off of Trabuco Creek Road on your way in.
The holiday weekend storms left about 1.65 inches of rain in the Robinson Ranch area of Trabuco Canyon.
September 29, 2008
First storm of the season
It brought more lightning than rain with only a tenth of an inch in Robinson Ranch, but it's better than nothing. This photo was taken at the RSM lake at 7:06 am this morning.
July 19, 2008
Rain total 12.81 inches for 07-08 rain season
This year's rain total of 12.81 inches in Trabuco Canyon (Robinson Ranch) was well above the 2006-2007 total of 4.85 inches and slightly above the 05-06 total of 12.67 inches. The rain year is July 1 through June 30. Detailed rainfall and weather information is available on the TrabucoOutdoors.com web site.
