Yosemite - Brilliant Afternoon

The rain of the previous day set up today to be about as beautiful as possible for our visit. The air was washed clean and the waterfalls were flowing nicely. In the fall the waterfalls are often dried up, so the weather leading into and during our stay favored us.

Here are a couple of favorite images

Upper Yosemite Falls

Merced River - El Capitan Reflection

I have several images of the upper falls from various points of view. If you look at my waterfall image from the rainy day (previous post) you can see the flow has a different character. This image captures a great pattern of the water breaking across the rock face.

The image of El Cap and the Merced River is from the location knows as the Gates of the Valley. The entire valley was lit brilliantly, but I focused on the vertical view of El Capitan because the wisps of clouds that moved across that side of the valley.

Upper Falls was shot with the Nikkor 35-70mm zoom at f/13. Reflection was shot with the Tamron 11-16mm at f/11

Post processing is ACR and CS5. I'm using some new techniques shown to me by my instructor earlier in the week.

Yosemite - Tuolumne Grove

After the rainy day and night we had a dewy and bright morning.

Our first stop was Tuolumne Grove. It is one of the sites where the giant sequoias are found in the park. It is a small grove (about a dozen trees). It was a one mile hike to the big trees from the parking area. The big trees are mixed into the forest, so no photos of them. But on the way out there were sheltered patches of vegetation where the sunlight was just starting to warm the dew. Here are a few images from that part of the hike.

Yosemite - Rainy Afternoon

Our cloudy morning turned into a rainy afternoon. The valley filled with mist and clouds which offered a new photographic opportunity.

We moved around Yosemite Valley photographing the clouds and mists against the valley walls. My instructor for the day was Michael Frye. If you go to his blog here you will see one of his images, and a special event that took place at one of our locations.

Here are two of my images from the day.

Glacier Point Layers

Falls in the Mist

More images from sunnier days to come !

Yosemite - Cloudy Morning

Our first morning in Yosemite Valley dawned cloudy and grey. No spectacular light, so the famous mega-geology of surroundings all just blended together.

I had arranged to have a private photo workshop with a local photographer. While the conditions may have not been the expected, his advice for the morning was right on: When you have soft light look for detail and color. And he was absolutely right. The fall colors haven't arrived in the valley yet but there was lots of color and detail to find and enjoy

Wildcat Falls

Flowing Water

North Side

More to come from a grey day...

Yosemite - Day 1

After a busy August and September we got away for a photo holiday. We attended an event in Los Angeles on Saturday. From there we spent several days at one of our national treasures: Yosemite National Park.

Parts of four days were spent in or around the National Park. As you might imagine, a hard drive full of images were captured. Much to look through and share over the next few weeks.

We arrived the first afternoon by way of Wawona Road, which brings you into Yosemite Valley by way of the iconic Tunnel View approach. Here is one of my first images of the valley on our arrival.

Much more to come...

First Colors

The fall colors appeared suddenly this past weekend. Trees that were barely trending away from green on Friday afternoon were brilliant by Sunday.

The early sentinals like Sumac, Ashes, Walnuts are generally showing colors and will be gone quickly. There are a few "improved" maples that have turned, but the native versions aren't showing as of yet.

I was able to run out on Sunday evening and capture these images at a nearby city park. The conditions were perfect, as you can tell from the reflections. Enjoy!

Fall Vision

Lakeside

Lakeside II

Images taken with D7000 & 35-70mm f/2.8. Post in ACR & PS5

Pinkout !

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. If you have been watching NCAA or NFL football you have seen the Pink items in the stadiums and on the players.

This extends to the small colleges as well. I shot at the McPherson College vs. Bethel College game on Saturday and you saw these indications of support: