Posts Tagged clouds
Stormy skies
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on February 3, 2010
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Sometimes good nature photography requires some suffering. In the case of this image, the suffering translated to very wet pants on a cold windy day.
I told much of the story of this image in a previous post. After witnessing a break in a large storm that had just passed through, I grabbed my gear and headed to the foothills above Sacramento. Although not raining when I arrived, shortly thereafter a cell developed and the rain started coming sideways. I ran to the car, and started going through my gear:
Rain cover for the camera; check.
Hat; check.
Umbrella; check.
Waterproof jacket; check.
Rain pants; oops.
The umbrella helped keep the front element of the camera dry but with the raining coming down sideways, it did little to keep my dry. It only took a few minutes for my jeans to be completely. The rain stopped after about 15 minutes but the wind coming through my cold, wet, pants reminded me of the event for the rest of the afternoon.
I could have hid in the car until the rain subsided but I’d have never gotten this shot. Being warm and dry isn’t always all that it’s cracked up to be.
I’ve been doing most of my shooting with my 7D but I wanted to go wider than the 24-70 would go on that body so I switched to my 5D for this shot. As much as I like the features and viewfinder on the 7D, there’s just something about a full frame sensor that can’t be duplicated.
Cheers
Timing is everything
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on December 14, 2009
My photography is more avocation than vocation. While my real job is pretty flexible, the fact of the matter is that I can’t always just head to Yosemite anytime the weather looks interesting. If you’re a regular reader of this blog you’ll know that weather, generally bad, plays a huge role in my shooting style. This scene is a great example.
As one of Yosemite’s most frequently photographed views, Tunnel View is a grand vista. It’s one of the most iconic locations in the park, and for good reason: it’s an amazing sight. Most of the time I don’t even shoot from this location but it’s absolutely the best place to be to get a broader understanding of what is going on in the park. From the seat of your car you can see mist forming over the meadows or be among the first to see a storm starting to clear. The the case of the later, it’s almost impossible to leave the camera in the car. Getting this shot was the result of a gamble that paid off.
One Monday, last March, I was checking the weather forecasts for Yosemite. A storm was forecasted to hit over the weekend with a snow level of 5000. At only 4000 feet the valley floor would, most likely, see only rain. With the weekend approaching the forecast started to look more promising. Snow levels remained at 5000 feet but the predicted low temperature kept dropping. Friday evening, on a hunch, I made a reservation for Saturday night in Curry Village (an unheated tent cabin if you’re keeping score). Saturday morning I threw the family in the car and we headed to Yosemite.
As expected we were greeted by rain in the park, turning very heavy after dark. After a nice dinner at the Mountain Room, we tucked ourselves into our sleeping bags and fell asleep to the steady pounding of rain on the tent. Ironically it was the best nights sleep I’ve ever had at Curry since the rain managed to drown out the noise from neighboring tents. During the middle of the night, that pounding on the tent turned to a soft flutter. It was snowing.
Waking up to fresh snow, in Yosemite, is like walking into a fairy world. I couldn’t wait to get out shooting. After fighting with 3 sets of snow chains, a story not fit for young eyes and ears, I was off and headed to Tunnel view to survey the park. The occasional snow flake was still falling but it was obvious that the storm was breaking. Iconic view or not I had to shoot it. By early afternoon the snow had all disappeared so we piled into the car and headed home. If only every plan worked out as well.
Cheers
Photography weather
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on November 17, 2009
If you’ve been following this blog for any time you’ve heard me talk about “light.” Not just any light, but rather that special soft light that brings a photograph out of just about any scene. An unfortunate realization, to many new to landscape photography, is that the best light often comes during the worst weather. In a place like Yosemite, rain chases the tourists back to their car but it shouldn’t chase you away if you’re carrying a camera. You do have to protect your camera and there are certainly limits to the obsession. Standing, camera in hand, out in a sideways driving rain isn’t my idea of fun.
I took this shot on one of the fall yosemite workshops last month. It had started to rain and despite being told to prepare for anything, most of the group was wanting to pack it in. Adding to the feeling was the group leader, Gary Hart. He had just tried to stick a triple-gainer into Tenaya creek. Gary, not as nimble as he once was, missed the landing and came up lame. While we waited for other to make it down the hill, the clouds dropped in a bit and it started to rain. The soft light from the clouds and the saturation of color that rain brings made the scene. With a bright blue sky I wouldn’t even have bothered to take out my camera.
Before you head out for that next shoot, make sure that you’re prepared. If nothing else, throw a clear plastic bag in your camera case. When that magic light starts happening, you don’t want a little weather to chase you indoors.
Cheers
Far and wide
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on September 8, 2009
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In a previous post I talked about how important it is to get out of your car if you really want to experience Yosemite. I think that this image, from Lembert Dome, speaks volumes to that point. The scale in this shot is enormous but many folks who visit the area never leave that tiny ribbon of asphalt in the middle/right of the image.
This shot was taken very near where I took the photo for my Land of Giants post. The real difference was in my choice of equipment. My Canon 15mm fisheye takes in a full 180 degree field of view, which is larger than the eye can see, and compresses the it into this scene. The previous shot was at 40mm giving only about one third the field of view. In addition to offering a really wide field of view, the fisheye gives me nearly infinite depth of field. At f/16, where this was shot, my depth of field is roughly from 1′ to infinity, allowing for some really interesting perspective shots. The more I play with this lens, the more I enjoy it. I can’t wait to use it on the Eastern Sierra Workshop, with Gary Hart, at the end of the month. There still are spaces available, I’d love to see you there.
Cheers
Can’t see the forest for the trees
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on September 2, 2009
Photographing large trees is always a challenge. From a distance it’s hard to imply scale and up close it’s very difficult to capture enough of the tree to really appreciate its size. I took this image after a nice lunch at Dog Lake in Yosemite. It’s a simple image but I thought that it really depicted the feeling of being in the forest and experiencing the scale of the place. The perspective distortion, from the fisheye lens, was exactly what the image needed.
Making the image was pretty straight forward. I attached my Canon 15mm fisheye lens and pointed the camera straight up on my tripod. I had to use an angled viewfinder to compose the scene or force my body into a position that I really didn’t want to be in. I positioned the camera so that just a speck of sun was showing and then stopped my aperture all the way down to f/18. Anytime you have a narrow aperture and a small point light source you’ll get a starburst effect. Shutter speed ended up being 1/30th at ISO 100.
When in Yosemite, use your feet.
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on August 27, 2009
Yosemite is a really big park but the vast majority of it is declared as wilderness. A few thin roads carve their way through the park but to get the most out your visit you need to get out of the car. I understand that not everyone is capable of strapping on a pack and venturing into the back country for 5 days, but just about everyone can handle walking a mile or two. Doing so can open up views of the park that you’d never know existed if your only vantage point is a parking lot.
This image is an example of what a short 2 mile, almost completely flat, walk can allow you to see. Many folks who visit the Tuolumne Meadows area just see a gentle stream meandering through a meadow. They have no idea that just on the other side of the meadow is a series of cascades that the river tumbles down on its way to Glen Aulin and Waterwheel falls. It’s a breathtakingly beautiful area but you most certainly can’t drive to it.
The next time you’re in the park stop by a visitors center. The rangers that staff the centers are more than happy to help you find a destination that’s within your ability. Whether you choose to walk 1 mile of 1o you’ll open up a whole new side of the park that you may never have known existed. Pack a lunch and make a day of it; you won’t be sorry.
This image was taken a short distance from where the Tuolmne river leaves its namesake meadow. The river tumbles off of a granite ledge and heads off, sideways, down the canyon. To get the shot I had to carefully climb down the wet, and quite slippery, granite to this vantage down in a crevice. My camera is nearly level with the upper surface of the river. I was very close to the water, and getting a little wet, so I used my Canon 17-40 f/4L to exaggerate the perspective. To make sure that I had adequate depth of field I stopped down to f/16 which resulted in an exposure of 1/20th of a second. Even with the overcast, the sky was still a stop or two brighter that the camera was able to capture so I brought the very top of the frame down with a Singh-Ray 2 stop, soft, graduate neutral density filter. An alternative approach would have been to capture two frames, one for the sky and one for the river and combined them in post processing.
Cheers
Land of Giants
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on August 24, 2009
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Last Thursday the family and I took a much needed break from life and headed to the hills; literally. We camped for 4 days along Lee Vining Creek, just outside of Yosemite’s Eastern entrance. There’s something very relaxing about unplugging and just being outside. The only caveat is that the more I do it, the less I want to go back to the daily grind.
On family trips to Yosemite we have a tradition that is dubiously referred to as “the death hike.” It always starts out innocently enough. A destination is chosen and we head out. Once we get started, we start adding destinations that are “just a little further.” What starts out as a quick 2 mile hike often ends up being 8-10 miles. This image was taken near the end of one such death hike. Although tiring, the destination nearly always makes up for the fatigue. That was certainly the case last Friday.
After starting in Tuolumne meadows, not far from Pothole Dome, we headed to Soda Springs. From there we hiked up to Dog Lake for lunch and then off to Lembert Dome, where this image was taken. From Lembert Dome, we took the “wrong” trail down and ended up having to walk another two miles down highway 120 to get back to the car. Total damage 8.5 miles. Perfect.
This turned out to be a fun image. Pictured, on the edge of the dome, is my son and his Yashicamat twin-lens reflex camera. From the perspective of my vantage point it looks like he’s a giant, surveying his garden of tiny trees. The lack of any real reference point in the middle of the image and a familiar foreground scale causes the eye to attempt to rationalize the scene. The distance involved is masked and somewhat compressed by the camera lens, compounding the effect and making him truly appear to be a giant. Even the clouds appear to be in his reach.
This was captured using my Canon 24-70 at 40mm. The short focal length and and aperture of f/16 gave me a virtually infinite depth of field. Shutter speed ended up being 1/25 of a second at ISO 100.
Just a Nice Day
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography, Travel on February 9, 2009
Tunnel View, in Yosemite, is probably one of the most over-photographed locations in the park. While it’s still on of my favorite spots, I rarely shoot there unless the conditions are extraordinary. I go there to “soak it in” and to get a handle on weather conditions. It’s also one of the best spots in the park to be just as a storm is clearing. I was there Saturday with a group and while there wasn’t anything particularly special going on, it was just a really nice day. While iconic as all get out I liked this scene just because if reminds me of why I go there.
Tunnel View scenic overlook is a historic site located adjacent to Wawona Road. “The overlook was constructed in 1932 during an era that heralded a boom in design and development throughout the National Park Service, and helped initiate the National Park Service “rustic design style.” If you enter the park from the South, this view is what you see after emerging from the long tunnel under TurtleBack Dome. It’s an iconic scene for a reason.
The World Isn’t Gray
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on January 15, 2009
The world isn’t gray. That seems like overstating the obvious but with your camera, it’s not quite that simple. The light meter in your camera makes some assumptions about our world that don’t necessarily hold true. The most important one is that, contrary to the title of this article, the world is gray. At first blush that may seem ludicrous but it’s the basis for all of our exposure computations.
Middle gray is a tone that is perceptually half way between black and white on a value scale; in photography, it is typically defined as 18% reflectance in visible light. Middle gray is the universal measurement standard in photographic cameras. The camera assumes that much of the light reflected by the object measured is equivalent to middle gray and uses that to determine how to correctly expose the scene.
All of that is well and good unless the scene that you’re composing isn’t mostly gray, or some other middle tone. The image in this post is an excellent example where the concept breaks down. Roughly half of this image, of Cook’s Meadow in Yosemite National Park, is brilliant white. When your camera calculates the exposure it’s not calculating how to expose the scene as you view it, it’s calculating the exposure necessary to make it middle gray. In this case, if left on full automatic, the snow would be grey, the sky day and Half Dome very underexposed. Because exposures calculation is always based on gray, or middle tones, scenes with a lot of black have a similar but opposite problem. If shooting in full manual mode scares you, and it shouldn’t, there are still ways around the problem. Read the rest of this entry »
The Photo Workshop Experience
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on January 9, 2009
A photography workshop can, and should be, a very special learning experience. Under the right circumstances, a good workshop can have a measurable, positive, impact on your shooting. Under the wrong conditions, it can be frustrating and fruitless.
Workshops should be small and intimate. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to create a valuable learning environment in groups larger than 7 or 8 students per instructor. To paraphrase a quote from Galen Rowell; “if your group has 20 people in it, it’s a seminar not a workshop.” Some of the best workshop learning opportunities come from interactions between the attendees. In the short time that you have together, you just cannot foster that environment with a large group.
The distractions of daily life often make it difficult to let our creativity shine. Often, we try to include photography into our vacation time. Planning the trip requires time and effort. The details of the trip become so tedious that it becomes very difficult to release your creative mind to the task of making images. Those details, or left-brain thinking, cloud our creative nature. The result is, often, a memory card full of uninspired images.
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