Dead and Dying
Related: Eastern Sierra, fishing, Mt Dana area, peak bagging, Sony, Sony 50mm, Sony A7R, Sony A7R II, Sony A7R III, Sony mirrorless, trout, wildlife, Zeiss, Zeiss Distagon, Zeiss Loxia, Zeiss Loxia 21mm f/2.8 Distagon, Zeiss mirrorless lenses
See my Sony mirrorless wishlist and other wish lists at B&H Photo.
At 11,500 feet, not much decomposition happens in the crystal-clear glacial-melt cold water about 10 feet / 3 meters down. This trout expired and will slowly decompose over the summer. Maybe it will even last to next spring, given the short summers at high elevation (late June - October).
Sony A7R II + Sony FE 50mm f/1.4 ZA
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The greatly-reduced Mt Dana ice field, formerly Mt Dana Glacier. It held its own this year (based on last year’s visit), but I think it is losing mass underneath that isn’t readily visible (large ice caves from melt water). Its relatively north-facing layout helps it resist melting, but the main body has separated from the smaller ice field at right. I’ve hiked up to that level to see the raw rock, which probably has not been visible for 10,000 years or so until perhaps a decade or so ago.
The ice field is much larger than it looks: I got a scare when traversing what I thought was the rocky rubble base, which turned out to be a heavy load of rubble on top of ice having very large caves underneath in places. Shot from a massive moraine that it must have occupied and pushed against the last century in John Muir’s time.
Sony A7R II + Zeiss Loxia 21mm f/2.8 Distagon
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Very much alive, life abounds in the moraine rubble, many flowers, spiders and bugs of all sorts. There is far more life to be found a wide glance would suggest.
Sony A7R II + Sony FE 50mm f/1.4 ZA
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With maybe a few decades left in me, this snowpack was melting so fast in mid-August that its lifetime was measured in days: it melted into two chunks near where I stand 2 days later. A hoody with a front pocket is a good place to carry a small lens or two of a kind like Zeiss Loxia, hence the sag.
Sony A7R II + Sony FE 50mm f/1.4 ZA
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