Valley View

The photograph in the last post is of Tunnel View, the most iconic scene in Yosemite.  This photograph is of Valley View, or as many call it, Gates of the Valley.  The scene is framed by El Capitan on the left, Cathedral Rocks and Bridalveil Fall on the right.  This was shot as the sun was setting, casting a warm glow on both El Cap and Bridalveil.  The Merced River was moving too swiftly to get a mirror reflection, so I just focused on trying to frame a decent shot with something in the foreground.  People will seem to bother you when you’re lying flat on your stomach trying to compose a shot, won’t they?  First, some deranged woman who claims the National Park Service had sent her off on extended leave had to ask me what I was doing (Hmmmm.  Camera. Tripod. Remote release.  Yosemite.  What do you think, lady?).  Then there was a Chinese guy who bounded out of his car, ran right down to where I was perched to point at my camera and ask me what lens I was using.  He then ran back up to his car, grabbed about $5,000 worth of gear, and set up shop right next to me.  That used to make me mad, now it’s a little flattering. 

I continue to be impressed with the black-and-white conversion capabilities of Photoshop Lightroom CC.  Seriously solid.  I continue to be disappointed with how Lightroom sharpens images, though maybe I'm just not good at it.  I use Smart Sharpen in Photoshop CC.  EXIF for this image is f/11 for 1/60th of a second, ISO 100, +1/3 stop exposure compensation.

God's Playground

Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space.
   
    --Ansel Adams

For those who have graduated from confusing it with Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park seems to quietly--but forcefully--beckon those who have never been there.  Located in northern California, Yosemite has long been on my list of must-see places.  No small part of this longing has to do with my interest in photography (dormant for a while, but recently renewed); one simply cannot think of landscape photography without thinking of Yosemite.  Some of it has to do with escaping the man-made and connecting with the God-made.  If I’m being honest, though, I think some part of me needed to go to Yosemite to be overwhelmed--to be brought down a few notches, and to be reminded that the granite will be around long after I’m not.

Our spring break trip to Yosemite was my 13-year-old daughter’s idea.  Back in January, she came in and asked me if I had any books on Yosemite.  I have two books by Ansel Adams, one more educational, one more pictorial.  I gave her the more educational of the two, and thought nothing else about it.  The next day, she announced that she wanted to go to Yosemite for spring break.  I offered no objection, and was secretly elated.  I spent the next few weeks learning about Yosemite.  Not necessarily the history of its existence, but more about the various locations in the park, where to go, where to stay, how to get there, how to photograph it.  I knew that we would arrive in daylight, that our hotel would be two miles from the south entrance of the park. (Be advised--it's still about 35 miles to Tunnel View from the entrance.)  The road we would take to the park would carry us directly to Tunnel View, the scene most people think of when they think of Yosemite Valley.  As luck (and airline schedules) would have it, I ended up at Tunnel View just before sunset on our first day.  I was ready to pop out of the tunnel and see this grand sight I’ve only seen in videos or photographs.  What I didn’t realize is that you first come around a bend in the road before you get to the tunnel, where you see a more compressed view of Yosemite Valley.  Unless you pull over, it’s a view that is gone shortly after it appears, leaving you with your mouth agape and your heart racing.   She's a tease, isn't she?
 
As you glide down the road and into the tunnel, your heartbeat increases with anticipation.  You know what’s coming next.  You’ve seen a glimpse of it just now, but nothing can really prepare you for what you see when you emerge from the tunnel.  Suddenly, one of the greatest landscapes in all the world is revealed to you.  More accomplished persons have uttered or penned eloquent descriptions of Yosemite Valley and the first impressions it generates.  It’s going to take some quiet time working through the photographs to cobble together the words that might describe my first impression of Yosemite Valley.  For now, though, consider the words of others.  First, Carl Pope, a former executive director of the Sierra Club: “It’s a place that you step into and you don’t know what’s going to happen.  It’s a place that can surprise you.  It’s a place where you’re small, but where being small is not a bad thing--where being small is actually a wonderful thing.”  Next, these words by William A. Turnage of the Ansel Adams Trust: “I don’t think there’s any place that hits you in the solar plexus the way the first time you come into Yosemite Valley.  It’s simply overwhelming. . . . It’s awesome.”
 
Over the next few days, we learned our way around the park and its amenities.  In many ways, the place truly is overwhelming, almost too much to take in, even given an entire week.  It’s probably similar to being given a $50,000 shopping spree in New York City or Chicago, but you have only 30 15 3 minutes to shop.  And it’s huge, this place.  The entire park is roughly the size of Rhode Island.  One downside to visiting in early spring is that pretty much all of the upper elevation places are inaccessible because the roads are closed from November until sometime in May.  Even though I had purchased Michael Frye’s book on photographing Yosemite well before the trip, I was at a loss as to where I should start.  As in writing, in photography sometimes you just have to start doing something.  Anything.  So that’s what I did.  Tunnel View.  Bridalveil Fall.  Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls.  El Capitan.  Half Dome.  Mirror Lake.  Tenaya Creek.  Mist Trail.  Vernal Fall.  North Dome.  Cathedral Rocks and Cathedral Spires.  Valley View.  I got a lot of the basic shots, and in the coming days I’ll post them here, with discussion of how I got the shot. 

Since I've mentioned Tunnel View, that's where I'll start.  This was taken the morning of our third day.  It had rained a good part of the afternoon before, and into the evening, before turning to a light dusting of snow.  The weather forecast showed the storm to be clearing out just around sunrise.  I had read that you really need some good clouds for a dramatic Tunnel View shot, so I got up early and headed to Tunnel View.  About 25 or so other people had the same idea, so we were all lined up with our cameras and our tripods and remote shutter releases.  It was a brisk 27 degrees, but once the sun cleared Cathedral Rocks (the formation just past Bridalveil Fall), it warmed up considerably.  I have countless shots of this scene still to work through, but this is one I really like.  ISO 100, Sigma 10-20 at 20mm, f/16 at 1/10 second.