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On the Way to the Top of Chew's Ridge

Posted by
Monterey John (Hollister, CA, United States) on 25 January 2010 in Landscape & Rural and Portfolio.

I'm moving some pre-posted images to make room for our surprise this past week ... 3' of snow atop Chew's Ridge (5,000 ft elevation) in the Santa Lucia Mountains about 15 miles from where I live.

This the the "road" we took to the top of the mountain. 12.5 miles of pure fun and occasional skipped heart beat. Fortunately my young friend Brian Mack and his 4x4 Toyota pickmeup were up to the task.

I have not shot snow in a long while, we don't get much of that stuff here. All my pictures came out hideously under-exposed. You would not believe what I had to go through to recover them. Thank God for RAW format, Lightroom, Photoshop and the dfine noise reduction plug-in.

Hopefully I've learned a thing or two so I don't have to go to quite this much effort in the future. My brother suggested bracketing and my son suggested +1 f stop when shooting snow. Do believe I will take their advice.

Canon EOS 40D 1/2000 second F/25.0 ISO 1250 24 mm

The new web site is live. http://monterey-john-photographer.com/

Photosanity from Folsom, United States

Gorgeous! Worth the effort to recover this!

25 Jan 2010 6:35am

Tamara from Aarschot, Belgium

Indeed... a great snow scene ! It must be an incredible place to visit !

25 Jan 2010 9:27am

john4jack from Corvallis, Oregon, United States

Dynamite capture.

25 Jan 2010 6:50pm

john4jack from Corvallis, Oregon, United States

PS - the advice you were given is good advice.

25 Jan 2010 6:51pm

LauraS from Chico, United States

I think this is a good execution of what California snow really looks like, because the sky and snow make it all almost the same color, muted... Well done.

25 Jan 2010 8:14pm

Judy from Brooksville, Florida, United States

Great interruption in your pre-posted images, for the unusual and good shot!

25 Jan 2010 10:54pm

Susan from Fort Lauderdale, FL, United States

Hallelujah for software, ey?? Looks well recovered to me...,Lucky that you had this experience this winter...something I doubt we'll ever see at my house!

25 Jan 2010 11:30pm

amy from Nanaimo, BC, Canada

Oh you Californians!! So spoiled!!! Nicely recovered, John!! Really a fantastic shot!!

26 Jan 2010 1:50am

Jen from Alpharetta, United States

Wow! This is spectacular!

26 Jan 2010 2:01am

mohsen from Tehran, Iran

that's a special place
different shot,well done

27 Jan 2010 11:11am

Magda from Vancouver, Canada

look at all that heavy/wet snow! Beautiful scenery

28 Jan 2010 1:39am

Mandy Provan from Johannesburg, South Africa

I love these snow shots John

28 Jan 2010 1:56pm

Canon EOS 40D
1/2000 second
F/25.0
ISO 1250
24 mm

chews-ridge
monterey-county