his photograph is along the Bear River in the Sierra foothills. It used to be wild beautiful place. Now it is an example of why I sometimes paint pictures instead of shooting photographs. The place has been improved. You have to look into little surviving pockets like this in order to find actual nature. Not so long ago, there was a swimminmg hole with no trail in. The banks were covered with thicket. We'd put on strong boots, pack a lunch and scramble down the middle of the river, wading through clear clean water to a secret island pine grove alongside a deep pool. There we would picnic, swim, sunbathe, and snooze among the trees and round white river rocks, then scramble back upstream at dusk. About twenty five or thirty years ago the county improved the place. They sold all the rocks to a contractor who hauled hills of them away and bulldozed the rest flat. Then they cleared the thicket, put in a road and built picnic tables and barbecue grills on our secret island.
his photograph is along the Bear River in the Sierra foothills. It used to be wild beautiful place. Now it is an example of why I sometimes paint pictures instead of shooting photographs. The place has been improved. You have to look into little surviving pockets like this in order to find actual nature. Not so long ago, there was a swimminmg hole with no trail in. The banks were covered with thicket. We'd put on strong boots, pack a lunch and scramble down the middle of the river, wading through clear clean water to a secret island pine grove alongside a deep pool. There we would picnic, swim, sunbathe, and snooze among the trees and round white river rocks, then scramble back upstream at dusk. About twenty five or thirty years ago the county improved the place. They sold all the rocks to a contractor who hauled hills of them away and bulldozed the rest flat. Then they cleared the thicket, put in a road and built picnic tables and barbecue grills on our secret island.