Black and White in Yosemite

I had an urge to put some of my photos into black and white, to see if they would translate well into that style. My many high-contrast photos seem to look good without color. I hope people won't think this is a rip-off of Ansel Adams. I don't put near the effort into my shots as he did with his. He had serious restrictions on his freedom to explore his creativity by having to carry bulky and heavy 8x10 frames of film for his large format view camera.

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This was my most serious attempt at imitating Ansel Adams. I planned out where I wanted to be at the "golden hour" of sunset. Framing the shadow area into the bottom of the frame helps to enhance the impact of Half Dome's bright face.

The winter months in Yosemite Valley always involve shadows. Finding that right mix of light and shadow in the right composition what I was trying to do here. Bridalveil Falls can be tough to capture but, I like how this one came out.

The majestic El Capitan often has such good light on it. Those pine trees on top of the cliffs hint at just how massive this rock is.

Here is another view of Bridalveil Falls, from the Tunnelview Vista Point. Just 5 minutes later, there was an abundance of blue skies and sunshine.

Here my recreation of Adams' "Half Dome: The Monolith", his famous close-up of the face of Half Dome. Legend has it that Adams arrived at this difficult spot with just one frame of film left. It is an arduous journey to get to this rugged spot, even if you are not carrying a large wooden tripod and 8x10 view camera. One main difference in our pictures is that his was taken when there was snow on the ground. Mine was taken during 100+ degree temperatures.

A Winter's Day In Yosemite Valley

Once again, I chose to go where other people don't. Even with it being a holiday, I knew where I could go to avoid people. My choice to walk up the closed Four Mile Trail was very good but, finding a shot through the thick oaks and Douglas firs was difficult. There were some icy and snowy parts on the trail but I had a nice burst of energy to climb pretty far to get this fine shot.

I also had very fine views of the impressive profile of the mighty El Capitan. Someday, I want to walk along that edge. This zoomed in shot shows that those trees on top are just so tiny compared to the 3000 foot cliff.

I really like it when I can use the wide angle in a vertical mode.

On the drive in on Big Oak Flat Road, I looked up and across the canyon to see how much snow there was on potential afternoon shooting locations. I settled on "The Rostrum", accessible from the west end of the Wawona Tunnel. It was a relatively easy walk down to the edge of a 500 foot cliff, with nice views of Bridalveil and Cascade Falls. The sun was nice and it was easy to ignore the noise of a holiday weekend in Yosemite Valley.

On the way out, I stopped at a popular roadside spot to view Bridalveil Falls and the icy cliffs above. Many, many years ago, my Brother Dave and I took a cross country ski trip from Badger Pass, mostly across tricky, untracked spring snow, to end up at the top of these cliffs.

Extra Yosemite, ala carte

I always seem to find some more good pics after a photo shoot is long since done. Here a few I took before Thanksgiving. El Capitan is hard to photograph up close, and even with a wide angle lens, you have to be creative to compose interesting shots.

Forests often grow into complex, living works of art, themselves. Pines and oaks duel for the sunlight and water, while cedars bide their time in the shade.

It really took some jockeying around to get this whole reflection into the picture. I still need to play with the lighting to recover those washed out highlights. My secret spot along the Merced River never fails to get me quality pictures.

I had to play with the lighting in this shot, where I chose a shutter speed that was too fast for the lens to adjust to. I was better able to freeze the water but, there's much easier ways to accomplish this by changing the ISO film sensitivity level. That will allow for faster shutter speeds. I haven't quite figured out what I really like about this one. Maybe that there is a lot to look at in the whole of the picture.

Birthday trip to Yosemite Valley!

I've planned this trip out weeks in advance, hoping for fine weather in the midst of this harsh winter, and it worked out great! However, it almost never happened. On the way to the Park, I ran into some very slick ice and nearly slid off the road, In fact, a car a few minutes in front of me did just that. Staying off the brake saved me from ending up where they did. They were OK and just shaken up a little bit.

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Again, I intended to explore some of my favorite spots to get another winter perspective on Yosemite Valley. I also found some ways to get different shots from those same areas, too. I climbed up to a small ledge about 12 feet up and took this Half Dome shot from near the bottom of Yosemite Falls. It's nice but, not a jaw-dropping picture.

I had intended to have an awesome birthday breakfast at the VERY ritzy Ahwannee Hotel but, I just wasn't hungry enough to eat $60 worth of food at the time. If I had never eaten there, I would have dined just to say I have been there and done that. Instead, I wandered around the inside of the historic hotel and tried to capture some of its wonderful features. The fireplaces had roaring fires, except for this one.

I generally don't go to places where the other tourists go but, the Wawona Tunnel view is a special place. I came up with an idea to get a unique perspective on this spot by walking into the tunnel and shooting outward. Interesting but not really a showpiece.

I always go back to my "secret spot" and see what the Merced River will give me. The cold was giving my camera battery fits and I couldn't fully explore this place again before my battery got too weak.

On the way into the Valley, I saw this wonderful scene in the Merced River Canyon. This particular spot gets very little sun during these short days and the snow was still hanging in the trees and on top of the rocks. I struggled to get some nice new shots and a few did come out very good.

More to come!!

A "Golden Era"

More than ever, this new year holds lots of questions and changes (on many, many levels, for all of us) but, I think I am on the verge of a Golden Era for my photography.

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I went through my past year's files to find some pics that had "flown under the radar". Some of these were passed over in favor of other nice pics.

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This one below is somewhat similar to other favorites of this scene but, it includes some other elements not found in the other more zoomed-in photos. This shot has a lot more to look at than the others. I printed it up, matched it with a grey and black mat, and put that into an 18x24" frame to make a very exciting piece.

Here's another undiscovered gem taken from Scout's Lookout in Zion. It was tough composing this shot while standing on this ledge with no railing. The wide angle lens enabled me to get all the grandeur in while still keeping some sense of scale of the hugeness that is Zion.

Here is even another pic that languished on my hard drive for many months. Once again, the wide angle lens captures this fantastic Bryce Canyon landscape very well. I'm still intending to take an extended exploration of this area sometime soon. This could be a big part of that Golden Era for me.

This rather abstract shot of the Kolob Canyon area of Zion does something for me. I always love those gnarled pines, growing in areas on their very edge of survivability. Something to be admired from these ponderosa pines, who out live us all.

Finally, I cropped this shot out of one of the pics I posted below. I have yet to print this one up but, I'll have to give it a try. So much neat stuff packed into one picture, here on the Merced River in Yosemite Valley.

Round 3 in Yosemite Valley

In looking back on these pictures, I'm realizing that I should have taken a LOT more shots like this one below. The light was so very good and the reflections could not be better. In the immortal words of Redd Foxx, "You Big Dummy!!"

I'm thinking that there surely are some wonderful "crops" I could take out of this one, too!

I'm always looking for "natural abstracts" and the oak canopies provided me with shots like this one. The yellows contrast so well with the blue sky and the black of the boulder and tree limbs contrast with everything else.

I think this is a definitive capture of El Capitan. You can easily get a grasp of just how monstrously huge this rock is. Upon further examination in this picture, I noticed a rather peculiar-looking box-shaped shadow behind El Capitan. I had to look at other pics to see if it was in those shots too. I zoomed in close on this high resolution photo and just figured it was a shadow on some broken terrain.

Down at my brother Ken's, we went down to the beach and I took my new camera along for practice. The train trestle looked promising so I shot a bunch. I turned this shot into an old time "sepia" picture, like what was popular before color film. I really like the extra detail and complexity of this photo. The railing on the bridge is also pretty dramatic and artsy.

As someone on another photo site said about this one, it looks like waltzing trees alongside the serene Merced River, in Yosemite Valley.

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.

New DSLR pics from Yosemite

My new Olympus E-510 Digital SLR was unleashed in Yosemite Valley at some of my favorite secret spots. The fall colors were still in force and the weather was gorgeous. When I arrived at my first destination, I was like a kid in a candy shop. Unfortunately, the auto-setting on the camera tended to wash out the bright white highlights of Yosemite's legendary white granite. Even with Photoshop, it is difficult to restore washed-out highlights.

Below is a very minor example of how those highlights are overexposed. The contrasty blues and whites of Yosemite make it tough. This picture below is an example of how my camera eye continues to improve.

I'm always looking for those unusual "natural abstracts" people seem to enjoy. This one fills the frame with interesting stuff.

The fall colors were still quite potent with the yellow oak leaves hanging around. The backlit leaves of the hardwoods were a welcome contrast to the blue skies, gray granite and green conifers.

I've always found it difficult to show how truly big El Capitan is. On top of the cliff behind El Capitan are 75 foot tall trees. That gives you some kind of idea of the immense mass of granite overseeing Yosemite Valley.

Mo' Yo Pics

Here's a long-lost gem I delved up from deep in my dusty slides boxes. That day at Glacier Point, I climbed over the wall (to keep the tourists in) and found some spots for some different photos, like this one.

Even the generic in Yosemite Valley is sublime. Except for those 4 cars I digitally erased from this picture below. The lighting and shadows in this picture remind me of Ansel Adams' work.

Illilouette Falls seems to be a shy waterfall, turned away from the John Muir Trail and tucked away. This gem is readily accessible from Glacier Point but it is an uphill hike back to your car. Some people hike past the falls, over Panorama Cliff to Nevada Falls and then back down the Mist Trail to Yosemite Valley. It's a moderate hike, mostly downhill. Three waterfalls and Half Dome, all for the same price!

Back in the early 90's, I went on a small plane flight from Placerville to northern Yosemite, including Hetchy Hetchy. This view of the rugged and remote part of northern Yosemite needed some manipulation in scanning to sharpen and adjust the colors, as this pic was taken through the planes window. Rarely do people visit this part of the park.

I could not pass up this crowded turnout at the east entrance of Wawona tunnel. The light was so good and the air so clear that I was compelled to capture this vista despite the crowd of tourists. You can also compare this picture to others on this blog which were taken in the winter time.

Enjoy!