I shot this very near our home in Pollock Pines, California, in the foothills of the Sierra, about 15 miles from where gold was first discovered at Sutter’s Mill.  Behind our house was a steep hill that went down to an ancient abandoned apple orchard that appear to be more than a century old.  And yet, every spring, the trees would burst forth with young blossoms from the crusty branches and attract swarms of hungry bees.

Beyond the edges of that orchard we found a stone chimney that was all that remained of a settler’s cabin – perhaps the very people who had originally planted the orchard.  And nearby through the undergrowth and wild trees we encountered a pen where a neighbor was raising alpacas, who were quite friendly.

We made many trips down to that orchard, both just for the pleasure of walking in the woods and also to capture the mood of the place in photographs as seasons and weather conditions evolved from one to another.

I amassed quite a nice collection of images from that spot, and if I have the time allotted, I’ll post there here someday..  But first, I have whittled my thousands of photographs down to just 250 color and 250 black and white images that represent what I think is the very best from my half century of photography, and I’ll be posting those here first.  At the rate I’m going, about one image per week, that should only take four years, so perhaps we’ll all get lucky.

Coming up the next two times I share photographs will be a couple of close up shots of bees in that very orchard, pollinating themselves silly.

Oh, and the reason I find this particular image one of my best is not due to it featuring anything particularly notable, but that it just reminds me of Japanese design in the flow of the branches, almost like brushstrokes from an ink pen in a painting.