Mariposa County

Here's a view of a reservoir near Hunters Valley Point Recreational Area. A couple friends and I drove past Williams Peak and ended up here. 

Sleep in Mariposa. Wake up in Yosemite.

After a wonderful array of shooting stars on Sunday, I thought it would be awesome to drive out near Mariposa to stargaze the next night. I brought Cait, and we ended up driving out around midnight and finally stopped in Mariposa around 2AM. We slept in the car, and planned to explore the small town of Midpines in the morning. We woke up at 5:30, and I drove past Midpines into Yosemite. Cait was asleep during the drive, so she got to wake up to a beautiful landscape of snowy trees and epic rocks.

 Because we had no intentions of going to Yosemite (initially), Cait and I didn't wear snow-related clothing. We used some super soft blankets as cloaks while we explored the snow-laden territory of Yosemite. After a couple minutes, we'd run into the car to heat our hands up again, then take more photos.

I really wanted to get some cool portraits in Yosemite, so I focused on taking pictures of Cait in addition to the landscape.

Because it's finals week, we left early. Cait and I got back to Merced at around 9AM. I'd definitely do this again, but I might have to wait until next semester to visit Yosemite again.

Williams Peak (Almost)

The semester is about to end, so I'll be heading back to Southern California soon. I thought it would be a great time to visit Williams Peak, which is known to provide complete views of California's Central Valley. I texted Karla and Karla, we got in the car, and drove into Mariposa County while listening to Hammock to make the whole experience surreal.

We ended up finding a spot with plenty of rocks to explore and watch the sunset. We didn't make it to the end of the trail leading to Williams Peak, but got to see the complete central valley from a pretty awesome place. I'll definitely visit this place again to watch the sun set from the very end of the trail.

Voicemail (Video)

I made a video today. I took a bunch of my voicemail messages from last year and put them to a videos that I've taken over the past couple years. I made some ambient drone music last night, and edited the video today. Here's a link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpZcFwBdHVo

Yosemite

Over the weekend, some friends from summer camp (Basil and Sprout) came to Merced to shoot a film for a 48-hour film festival. We decided to go to Yosemite and caught the early golden-hour at 6 in the morning. Here are the photos from Yosemite:

Santa Cruz

Yesterday, I went to Santa Cruz with Oscar and Emeka. Here are some photos from our exploration: