The Revenge of the New Camera

Back in 2003, when my Fuji S-5000 was new, I came to Yosemite to thoroughly break-in my new toy. I've shot many of the same shots I did last time. Despite having troubles with not reading the manual, I still ended up with some nice pictures, after an exercise in digital light manipulation.

I like how this one shows off a more generic part of Yosemite Valley in the background. Curry Village and the Happy Isles get so little sun this time of year, in the shadow of Glacier Point. I don't think I've ever seen pics of Lower Yosemite Falls from this angle before.

While resting at the top of the hike, I looked up and saw this imposing scene. I felt that tilting this image up on end made for a much better composition than how I originally shot it.

The forest on the Yosemite Valley floor is interwoven with the colorful California Black Oak carving out its own niche in the conifer-dominated ecosystem of today.

Autumn Falls! The fall colors contrast so well with those same old blues and greens we see all year round. I just knew I had to find some way to get this showy little bush into the foreground of this scene.

Fall Pictures

Here in the Plumas National Forest, fall is here in a BIG way. Actually, it's more accurate to say that Indian Summer is here, instead. Smoke from the fires has drifted all the way up here to northern California but the weather has been VERY nice, of late.

The fall colors have been outstanding and here's a few examples. This one below is a bushy Pacific Dogwood (Cornus nutallii). <----------Brain sludge from my college days.

The West also has showy maples of their own. The Bigleaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum) is a common tree along streams and rivers in the pacific northwest. Both these hardwood trees grow in the understory of the larger conifers like Ponderosa pines and Douglas firs.

Even the old clearcut plantations are full of color with California Black Oaks in the mix, growing back as stump sprouts.

Finally, here's a bridge on an alternate route we had to take. Old and rickety, it led to a scary 4WD road back up and out of the steep canyon. We had 4 rainy days in a row when I first arrived on this assignment. All in a days work, I guess.