Spirits of Silver



The Diablo Range is a mountain range in Northern California that runs from the Carquinez Strait - a part of the tidal estuary of the San Juaquin and Sacramento Rivers as they drain into San Francisco Bay - to Orchad Peak near Cholame in San Luis Obisco County at its southern end, a distance of roughly 200 miles. The range lies around 10 to 50 miles from the Pacific coast with U.S. 101 paralleling it and the San Francisco Bay on its western side and Interstate-5 on the eastern side. Since other members of the coastal ranges such as the Santa Lucia Range and Santa Cruz mountains are further to the west and along the coast, they tend to block the bulk of the incoming peripitation from the Diablo Range. With an average elevation of about 3,000 feet it is not high enough to capture most of the incoming moisture at higher altutude. Winters are mild with moderate rainfall and summers are hot and dry.

The typography is that of rolling grasslands - roughly ridge lines with fingers extendending downward with associated drainage channels and punctuated by peaks that rise as much as 2300' above the average elevation.  Mount Diablo at 3849', Mount Hamilton (home to Lick Observatory) at 4265', and the highest peak in the range, San Benito Mountain, at 5,267' are three of the more prominent. The rolling nature provides opportunity for pleasing landscape compositions which is sometimes enhanced by an advancing coastal fog which is a daily occurance during the dry season which roughly runs from May to November. During the dry season the grass lands are a golden brown which turns to a bright and sometimes emerald green during the wet or rainy season.

Living on the western edge of its foothills I have explored many of its trails with a camera and, so far, have come away with several “keepers.” The image below was taken about 20 or more years ago handheld with a Pentax K1000 on transperancy film with an ISO of 50  not far below Lick Observatory which occupies the summit of Mount Hamilton.

As evidenced by the green grass and seasonal stream, it's winter during the rainy season with the last rays of sunshine striking the landscape as the sun sets below the summit. I vaguely recall having to stand on my tip toes to avoid some dense brush from obstructing the lens and used a slow shutter speed to make the exposure – conditions which compromised my grip on the camera resulting in a slight camera shake which makes the image appear slightly out of focus. Because of that I initially discounted the image until I recently ran across it again in my collection. The rich color and slightly out of focus look impart a view reminicient of the Pictoralists -  which I knew little about back then - and I now consider it a sucessful photograph.

Last weekend I went searching for similar images in the range with a Toyo 45AX, holders loaded with both and color and B&W negative film, and standard and soft focus lens.  Although a technical camera, the AX provides for only 7mm front shift - a far cry from the 28.5mm of the CF and whopping 80mm of the MII which I have been working with lately.  I found  two possibilities but both required better lighting conditions (time of day) and I made note of their locations for the future.  I didn't make it further than Lick Obsservatory on this trip where I spent some time touring.

I find it somewhat suprising that despite the outstanding visual potential for photography, few, if any, photographers of note have photographed in it. For example, although both Carleton Watkins and Ansel Adams among others, lived on its western flank and crossed it many times during their numerous trips to photograph in Yosemite National Park, except for Watkin's Strait of Carquennes shown below, neither photographer photographed in it.  I could be wrong of course but I am unable to reacall any other photographs.