Stunning New Photo Book: Inside the High Sierra, by Claude Fiddler
Claude Fiddler is a friend, and I was pleased to see him finish his book, a labor of love for some years now. I’ve got an advance electronic version to look through, and I’ve pre-ordered a printed copy.
Readers know I’ve spent a good deal of time in the Eastern Sierra, though having passed several earlier decades of my life not visiting it more than a few times to Yosemite. Well, life distracts us all through work and kids, doesn’t it?
As many days as I’ve spent in the Eastern Sierra, much of it has been repeat visits to half a dozen of the same areas, for practical reasons. Now I wonder if I’ll have the years and the strength to explore the magical places I have not visited.
And in that sense, Claude’s book is a “problem” for me: inciting a desire to visit the places he has photographed so well, magical places far off the beaten track. For me, such places are the most rewarding of all, radiating a sense of timelessness stemming from minimal evidence of humans.
Claude gets WAY off the beaten track in his images, and that makes them fascinating to me. They’re not your classic “from somewhere near the road” images... wow!
The photographs are gorgeous... I draw in my breath with some of them as if I were there, wishing I were there... it’s a bittersweet longing. When I can, I want to return to my recently self-imposed rule: “visit at least one wholly new area each trip”.
Inside the High Sierra, by Claude Fiddler can be ordered at https://www.wolverinepublishing.com/store/inside-the-high-sierra-preorder.
Claude’s comments on the image below: “I call it the Observation Basin. Not so named on any map. The particular lake sits below Observation Peak and Mount Shakespeare. Photo falls off into the Middle fork of the Kings River just south and west of the confluence with Palisade Creek. The ridgeline in the photo background are the Devil's Crags. A two day hike from Bishop Pass or any other trailhead for that matter.”
Captured with Gowland 4x5-inch view camera + 150mm Fujinon lens on Gitzo Studex tripod, Kodak VPL film.
