"These are the most beautiful mountains in the world," the elderly Belgian woman told me as I marveled at the scene and searched for air at Piute Pass, (11,423 feet) in the John Muir Wilderness Area. Then she listed the extensive set of alpine trecks she'd made throughout the world. Her relaxed presence in a group of tired and younger people gave her words admirable credibility. She had seen more mountain ranges than the well-traveled Muir, but they reached the same conclusion.

This encounter, on one of my early backpacking trips, told me that it would be worth the effort to spend time photographing the Sierra Nevada. Since then, I have made many trips to photograph the unique and breathtaking scenery that occurs in every horizontal and vertical direction, around every corner, over every ridge, as far as the eye can see. Rather than focusing on portraits of the countless individually interesting objects, I've used my limited and precious time in the Sierra in search of landscapes containing multiple interesting elements in pleasing compositions that are a better depiction of what it is like to be standing in these wonderful mountains. As John Muir wrote far more eloquently, "...every attempt to appreciate any one feature is beaten down by the overwhelming influence of all the others." However, no photographs, even when aided by the words of John Muir, adequately capture the whole feeling of being in the Sierra Nevada. The overwhelming beauty, simultaneous exhaustion and exhilaration, and what Mark Twain called "the air breathed by angels" all need to be experienced in person.

A native of Reading Pennsylvania, and graduate of Earlham College in Richmond Indiana, Fred Weyman has lived in Sacramento California for 25 years working primarily as an environmental toxicologist. He has recently returned to live in southeastern Pennsylvania. Using topographic maps and backcountry guidebooks to select locations, he has explored the Sierra crest from the auto-accessible Lake Tahoe and Yosemite Valley, the dramatic ridges and countless glacial lakes of the John Muir and Ansel Adams Wilderness Areas, to the remote parts of the highest Sierra in Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park at the southern end of the range. His photos capture the Sierra that few people and even fewer skilled photographers have ever seen. Adventure photographer Galen Rowell wrote in Outdoor Photographer that backpacking with photo gear for even for a single night in the high Sierra, "rarely passes the gumption factor of being worth the effort." Mr. Weyman credits his brother Eric Weyman, multi-time US orienteering champion and U.S.National Team member, for helping him learn physical and mental dedication, determination, and, of course, confident off trail navigation.

There are two types of windows of opportunity for seeing the Sierra Nevada at it's finest. Accessible hiking in the high country is limited to a two to three month period in the summer when strong storms are unlikely, and stream crossings are easier after most of the snow has melted. Although winter in the Sierra is beautiful, short cold days, huge winter storms, uncolorful (white) and contrasty subjects, nonreflective lakes, and slow, difficult travel make it a less attractive photo destination.

The daily windows of opportunity occur at dawn and dusk when rich warm light colors the predominantly light granite with pinks, purples, browns, reds, and oranges that can last for less than a minute or two; like painting on a white canvas, only the colors begin to fade to black or lighten to white as soon as they are applied. While backpacking, his daily strategy was to use the middle of the day, when dark shadows and unattractive blue-hued light predominate, to find precise locations where the dramatic lighting will add to, or help create, an interesting composition. "Although I've made several precalculated dawn and dusk dashes, on clear days I only count on having time for one evening and one morning photo. Finding a pair that can be accessed easily from the same campsite is also part of the selection process."

John Muir wrote, "Among the many unlooked for treasures bound up and hidden away in the depths of the Sierra solitude, none more surely charm and surprise all kinds of travelers than the glacial lakes ... mirroring back their wild beauty over and over again" No longer 'unlooked for', the 1,000+ named glacial lakes, and too many unnamed ones to count, are, along with the light colored granite, a big part of the uniqueness of the range. Their convoluted shorelines, dark blue water, and colorful reflections of the sky and granite make them rewarding photographic subjects.

Mr. Weyman is also an accomplished classical musician. The professionals he has performed with have praised his baroque recorder playing for its "clarity and virtuosity" and likened it to Marion Verbruggen, the world's foremost recorderists. Marion's first words after hearing him at her masterclass were: "I don't know who you are, but you play very well." In his younger years he was an NAIA All-American volleyball player, head men's coach at University of California Davis, assistant women's coach at California State University Sacramento, and collegiate and professional referee.