Hunting Without A License!

Yesterday the clouds were building and shape-shifting all day. It was one of those days that promised treasures, especially in the DSLR realm.

I kidnapped my husband. We loaded up the cameras and headed out.

"Where we going?" he asked as I headed the car east on 44.

"Ash Creek Road. I can hear it calling to us!"

He's cute, huh!

First we stopped at Millville Plains to get a shot of Mt. Lassen which was popping in and out of shadows.

Photo Copyright: Toni Tona

It's nice having our own volcanoes. This is Mt. Lassen which is about 40 minutes from us.To the right of Mt. Lassen are two humps. They are what is left of Broke Off Mountain which exploded many, many eons ago, spreading rocks all over our county!

Photo Copyright: Toni Tona

The rocks were everywhere. Settlers of the area gathered the rocks out of the fields and built walls. We have hundreds of stone walls throughout the valley. My back hurts just to see them.

Photo Copyright: Toni Tona

The walls follow the terrain and are great for keeping cattle in and photographers out!  Not so effective with Mountain Lions and Bears, oh my! If you want to see miles and miles of rock walls, take a drive down Wildcat Road. You will also see, 27 different types of birds, including eagles, osprey and hawks, also, squirrels, raccoons, rabbits, and cows (lots of cows). Hopefully, you won't spy a bear, cougar or skunk.

The photo above is a good example of what the wind does to gorgeous, giant clouds; it turns them into cream of sky soup.

Photo Copyright: Toni Tona

The stone walls follow roadways too.

Photo Copyright: Toni Tona

And waterways! This is Ash Creek and Black Butte in the background. This photo is actually a photographic no-no. When taking a photo, one should create a grid 3 squares by 3 squares on the subject. The middle square should actually have the main interest in it. Otherwise, the viewers eye keeps traveling around the photo and doesn't rest. This middle grid has a big square of nothing but green. Frankly, I don't care!

Photo Copyright: Toni Tona

 I found half a tree before the wind melted all the clouds into one big sky quilt.

Mt. Lassen eventually disappeared in the shadow of clouds, so I turned the car around and headed east. We knew there was still a promise of a showy sunset but it would be a west side show.

Photo Copyright: Toni Tona

That little line under the clouds promised to let the sun shine through at the most brilliant moment.

Photo Copyright: Toni Tona

The potential started to build. Frank climbed a rock wall and set up his tripod.  I walked down the road a little, spread out the quilt I always carry in the trunk of my car (one never knows when the perfect spot for reading or thinking might jump out).

Ready...set...it started to happen.

Photo Copyright: Toni Tona

Photo Copyright: Toni Tona

Photo Copyright: Toni Tona

Photo Copyright: Toni Tona

Photo Copyright: Toni Tona

Photo Copyright: Toni Tona

There is always the time when you just need to put the camera down and enjoy the view.  It just got better and better. I have about 200 photos from the evening but my favorite part was sitting on the quilt, watching one of the best sunsets in a long, long time.