[Tondtar]

Disclaimer : I am not a pro in photography. It's more of a recent hobby of mine. Matter of fact, I just bought my first DSLR a few months ago after going through a few point and shoot cameras in the past few yeras. I am still in early stages of learning the features of the new camera and peculiarities of digital imaging/ photography. This site has been a very helpful resource. There are many here whom I have learned a lot from. This is my first real contribution ...I appreciate any inputs (good and bad).

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My family and I had a chance to visit California's Eastern Sierra Nevada mountain range last week during the Christmas Holiday. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon after driving 5 1/2 hours from LA. The road travel was wonderful as the ascent to the higher elevation was accompanied by increasing beauty of winter in the Sierra mountains. Once we arrived at the town of Mammoth Lakes, the snow fall began full force. It turned to a full force blizzard with winds in excess of 45 mph for the next 24 hours. Once it went away, it was time to get out to witness one of the most wonderful winter scenery you can imagine. While my family and our friends decided to hit the slopes for skiing and snowboarding, my brother-in-law and I decided to hit the road for some photography in and around June Lake and Mono Lake. They are about 12-15 miles north of Mammoth Lakes and a popular destination for tourists who are into photography because of their natural and unusual beauty.

Here are a few photos I took. I hope you enjoy them.

Camera : Nikon D40x
Lens : Nikkor DX 18-135mm 1:3.5-5.6G ED
Filter : Hoya UV and Cir-Polarizing
Exposure/ Speed : Mostly automatic or semi-automatic settings (I'm still learning, you know!)