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| A Giant Seqouia in Mariposa Grove |
Back in September I left home on an almost two week journey that brought me to Yosemite National Park, Crater Lake National Park, Lava Beds National Monument and Lassen Volcanic National Park. It was quite a journey and there's no better way to learn your camera than getting out to use it!
That's exactly what the trip was for. With the exception of 3 days while I was visiting family in Washington state, I was out in the field with my camera every day for those two weeks. It was really an awesome experience and if I hadn't used all my vacation time up for it, I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.
I took nearly 6,000 photos over the course of the trip, and now I can safely say, that's entirely too many. It was good for the learning process, but bad for the processing process. Since I have my camera set to save images in the Raw format, I need to process each image before it's ready for public consumption. Luckily there were quite a few overlapping images of the same subject but with different camera settings, so I was able to pick the best of each bunch and process those.
Yosemite has a number of Giant Seqouia groves. The most accessible for me on this trip (since it was nearby my campsite) was the Mariposa Grove at the southern tip of the park. My camera bag currently lacks an ultra-wide angle lens so it was difficult to capture the full majesty of these enormous trees. That didn't keep me from trying however, and I think this image as the late afternoon sun lit up the tree's bark, comes close.
That's exactly what the trip was for. With the exception of 3 days while I was visiting family in Washington state, I was out in the field with my camera every day for those two weeks. It was really an awesome experience and if I hadn't used all my vacation time up for it, I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.
I took nearly 6,000 photos over the course of the trip, and now I can safely say, that's entirely too many. It was good for the learning process, but bad for the processing process. Since I have my camera set to save images in the Raw format, I need to process each image before it's ready for public consumption. Luckily there were quite a few overlapping images of the same subject but with different camera settings, so I was able to pick the best of each bunch and process those.
Yosemite has a number of Giant Seqouia groves. The most accessible for me on this trip (since it was nearby my campsite) was the Mariposa Grove at the southern tip of the park. My camera bag currently lacks an ultra-wide angle lens so it was difficult to capture the full majesty of these enormous trees. That didn't keep me from trying however, and I think this image as the late afternoon sun lit up the tree's bark, comes close.
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| El Capitan reflected in the Merced River |
OK, that's a little exaggeration, but in reality I was convinced I had happened upon a scene that was more unique than it turned out to be. Quite a few photographers have found this same scene and photographed it under better conditions than I. (Better conditions photographically speaking means with some clouds in the sky to add a bit more drama and interest.) Despite the abundance of images, I still enjoy my own. There's a nice Yin/Yang feeling to the reflection in the river and the river bank/meadow anchor the reflection in reality.
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| Bridalveil Falls runs dry after a long summer |
Early September is not the optimal time to visit Yosemite. Don't get me wrong, there doesn't seem to be a "bad" time to visit the park and since schools were back in session there weren't as many visitors as I'm sure were there during the summer months.
What made it a slightly less good time to visit was the waterfalls. After the long dry summer, most of the waterfalls were little more and a trickle. The image to the right is Bridalveil Falls, and while there is some water coming down, it's far from the raging torrent of water that pours over these rocks in early spring.
It was an interesting experience none the less, to be able to crawl up and over these rocks. Even though they don't look like it, these rocks are as smooth as glass! I saw one fellow adventurer slip and smash his camera on a rock while trying to catch himself. I don't know that anyone has ever refuted the whole concept of erosion, but if you know someone who has, send them here to see the effects of water on solid rock for themselves.
More from Yosemite can be seen here, in my Yosemite National Park gallery. Needless to say, I'll be returning at my earliest opportunity!
