Ruth McKenzie Table Mountain Preserve

Had a wonderful day hike with our S2 photo group a few days back. We scheduled a hike during one of the Preserve's "open day" events. Ruth McKenzie Preserve is nearly 3,000 acres, just above Millerton Lake. Managed by the Sierra Foothill Conservancy, the open (free) event drew a decent crowd and was very organized by their team.

We explored the roughly 4 mile loop trail, and detoured up to the top of Table Mountain via the Bolin Gap trail, to take in the views. Nearly 6 miles in total.  And the views did not disappoint!

There were a good amount of wild flowers, considering the lack of rain so far this year. But, the rain did come, and we barely escaped the downpours that came later that afternoon.  And there were a few red bud down in the canyon.

My attempt to capture a few good B&W images paid off. Captured in color with the Pentax 645 on Ektar 100 film, and converted in post, below are a couple of those images.

Up Top

Lone Oak

All in all, a very nice 6 mile hike in a beautiful sierra foothill setting. Definitely recommend this hike to locals in our area. Check out the Conservancy website for event details.

 https://sierrafoothill.org/events-listing/

Testing the new Pentax 645 Macro 120mm

In an effort to refine my Pentax 645 system, I decided to sell the 150mm (a sweet little lens), since I had the 200mm as well, and fill the void with a 120mm Macro lens. This rounded out my kit with the 45mm, 75mm, 120mm and 200mm lenses. A nice combination!

These are equal to 28mm, 50mm, 80mm, and 135mm in your typical full frame digital.

The lens came in great shape, with clean glass, and only a stiff aperture ring, which a VERY small drop of mineral oil cleared up rather easily.

So I headed out to test the new Macro this last week, on a few wild flowers and fruit blossoms. The results were very encouraging.

Almond Buds 

Peach Blossom

Wild Lupin

I can see this could get addictive! Will be having more fun in the future with this lens!