Posts Tagged el capitan
World’s greatest taco stand
Posted by Doug Otto in Geek, Photography on February 9, 2010
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While Mexican food and landscape photography don’t generally share a common bond, that isn’t the case with this image.
The first step to overcoming an addiction is admitting that you have a problem. If you know me personally it’ll come as no shock to hear that, yes, I am taco junkie. I’m not talking those cardboard and packaged meat things you get from TacoBell™, I mean real tacos; some spiced meat in a soft corn tortilla with just onion, cilantro and salsa.
Over the summer of 2008 I took the family on a 5 day backpacking trip in Yosemite. The high country, in Summer, is a great escape from the crowds in the valley. There’s a little spot along Yosemite creek, about 7 miles from the Tioga road, where we like to set up camp. From there it’s an easy day hike to North Dome, Yosemite Point & falls or El Capitan; where this image was taken.
Rather than rely on packaged food, we always cook and dehydrate our own meals. It’s easy to do and it tastes WAY better than the bagged meals. On this particular day, my son had set a goal:
We should have tacos on top of El Capitan!
After a moderate 4 mile hike we were treated to this view. While my son started setting up the Jetboil stove, I took the time to make this image. After a few shots I sat down and had lunch at the greatest taco stand in the world.
Cheers
Horsetail fall
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on January 28, 2010
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Often the journey is more important than the destination. Nothing underscores more for me thanHorsetail fall (Yosemite).
First made famous by the late Galen Rowell, Horsetail fall is a tiny water fall that can sometimes be seen on the side of El Capitan. What really makes it special is the treatment it gets, at sunset, during just a couple times each year. Fed by only a 30 acre watershed it often doesn’t flow at all, but when weather conditions are right it puts on an amazing show. Best viewed backlit, the fall appears as a river of fire down the side of the granite face.
Because of the special conditions, and timing required, Horsetail can be very elusive to photograph. While technically possible in the fall, due to the angle of the sun, Horsetail fall is traditionally photographed in middle to late February. Huge crowds of photographer arrive, each year, all trying to get the classic shot. Ironically, my best memories of Horsetail are of standing in the snow, shoulder to shoulder with some other photographers joking and laughing as we clicked away at the display. The photography was completely secondary. Even after “getting the shot” several times I still go back each year just for the experience.
This particular image was taken in late January from a less traditional location. Still early in the season for the full display, I liked it because of its different perspective. I took this shot with my Canon 100-400 from the edge of Southside drive, not far from Sentinel Beach.
Cheers
Cold and gold
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on December 29, 2009
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As I often do, before a trip, I was going through some images that I took last year on New Year’s eve. Like last year we’ll be snow camping in Yosemite for the holiday. The weather forecast looks promising, although honestly just being there is enough.
I made this image at Valley View. The eastern sky was overcast and grey but there was a gap in the cloud layer on the western horizon. The gap allowed the days last light to reach El Capitan. Rather than take the image of the whole scene, which would have included the flat grey sky, I opted to frame just a reflection. I liked how the the three rocks formed an opposing triangle to the shape of El Cap. The warm light also made a nice contrast against the cold monochrome of the stream and snow.
To make the image I used my Canon 5D with a 100-400L. I was zoomed all the way out, at 100mm, and set my aperture to f/22. I normally avoid settings narrower than f/16 because of diffraction but I need to slow down the shutter speed to get the look of the water that you see here. The resulting exposure was 1.5 seconds at ISO 50.
Cheers
Merry Christmas
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography, Random Thoughts on December 24, 2009
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Rather than take the politically correct tone and wish you a “Happy Holiday”, I’d like to wish to you and your family a Merry Christmas. I refuse to accept the notion that wishing someone well, regardless of their beliefs, could be offensive. I certainly wouldn’t be upset if someone wished me a Happy Hanukkah or Kwanzaa.
This truly is a Christmas image. Two years ago, my wife and I slipped away for a quick trip to Yosemite. We spent the night of December 23rd in an unheated tent cabin in Curry Village with the hopes of catching the sunrise on Christmas Eve morning. Northside drive was closed for construction so we had to wake early enough to make the walk back to Valley View, or Gates of the Valley as some call it. Because of the time of the morning and the difficulty of getting to the location, we had the place to ourselves. Even though it had been several days since the last snow, the conditions were pristine. The color in the sky lasted just a few minutes and then vanished as the sun peaked over the horizon. Satisfied that we’d seen all that there was to see we climbed back in the car. We arrived home in plenty of time for Christmas Eve at my Mom and Dad’s house with the whole extended family.
Sunrise is a special time of day when nature often puts on a spectacular show. On most of us, the show is lost as we rush through the morning to get to work, school or shopping. Others cringe at the very thought of being up before dawn. I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes the shrill call of the alarm clock is painful, but watching the morning break completely makes up for it. When considering your resolutions for the coming year let me make a suggestion. Vow to get up early enough to watch a few sunrises with someone you love. You can thank me later.
Cheers
A day at the beach
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on December 16, 2009
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This probably isn’t the beach that you were expecting but I’d much rather be here than at the ocean. Cathedral beach is a labeled picnic area on Southside drive in Yosemite. While near Cathedral rocks, the most prominent feature is El Capitan. Reflection possibilities abound with the Merced river winding through the area. In the winter the gate is almost always closed but it’s a very easy walk from the road. I took this shot on the same morning as the previous entry.
The real story about this shot is the fact that it sat, untouched, on my hard drive for almost a year. Generally speaking I’m usually very good about sorting my images right after a shoot. Apparently I’d been so happy with the previous shot that I didn’t bother to go through the other images from that morning. Processing this shot yesterday was a lot like finding a lost wallet with a 20 dollar bill inside. As luck would have it, I found a few more from the same morning but I’ll save those for another day.
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
Misty Morning
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on November 25, 2009
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Valley View, or Gates of the Valley as it’s sometimes called, is a really pretty spot. It’s just about the last place that you can stop while driving the Yosemite valley loop. Across the Merced river is Bridal Veil fall, Cathedral Rocks and El Capitan. A classic, iconic scene, Valley View gets photographed hundreds of times each day. While I don’t always shoot at this spot, I nearly always stop and give it one last look.
This shot was the result of such a stop and was taken just a few minutes after the previous post. I didn’t even get my camera out at first. The sun was up, the sky was bare and the light coming off of El Capitan was blinding. The scene was just too “hot” to shoot in its entirety. After a few minutes of watching the mist hover over the river, and the meadow on the other shore, I succumbed to this iconic scene and fired off a few shots.
By keeping the top portion of the scene out of my frame I was able to manage the exposure. The warm reflected light and mist on the river was really what I was after. After all, I’ve got plenty of shots of El Capitan in front of a cloudless sky. While I didn’t do a ton of shooting during the last trip I am really happy with this image. Any day that you get a “keeper” is a good day.
If you’re in the US, have a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday. If you live somewhere not celebrating our holiday, have a great Thursday.
Cheers
A sense of scale
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on November 12, 2009
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I took this shot on the final day of the last Gary Hart workshop of the season. We’d taken the group to one of his favorite spots. It’s a similar perspective to the traditional Tunnel View but a bit off of the beaten trail.
The anticipated star of the show that evening would be the full moon rising directly next to Half Dome. While we sat and waited we laughed and joked about the previous 4 days. Some folks did a little shooting but mostly it was a waiting and reflecting time.
I had my 100-400 lens on because I wanted to revisit a shot that I’d taken 3 years prior (almost to the day). While waiting, I spotted this tree standing against the profile of El Capitan. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed it because shortly after this shot Gary pointed it out to the group and I’m certain that mine wasn’t the only shot of this tree made that evening.
“Big” is a common adjective when describing iconic views in Yosemite. The huge granite face of El Capitan is an imposing structure but the dark silhouette of this lone pine made an interesting contrast. The tree’s ridge had just dropped into shadow while the warm orange of the evening sun glowed on the granite behind it. Even with no camera, it would’ve been a great way to end the day.
As a side note, this is another example of why you don’t want to leave a lens in the car. While many consider Yosemite to be a wide-angle location, there are a ton of intimate scenes, such as this, if you’re willing to go looking for them.
Cheers
Frosty morning on the Merced
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on November 2, 2009
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I think that nearly every landscape photographer struggles when they visit a location for the first time. The first instinct is to grab the widest lens that you have and try to capture it all. More often than not the resulting images are busy, confusing and uninteresting.
During the Gary Hart workshop that just concluded, a number of folks commented that they had struggled with one location that we visited. It was a morning shoot along the bank of the Merced River. It’s also really the only place that you can get an end-to-end view of El Capitan and the Three Brothers. While I’d been to this particular location many times, I’d never really captured an image that I felt did it justice.
After the group spread out and began searching for their compositions I tried to break the scene down to find it’s essence. Really, this hugely vast scene came down to just a few things: the Merced River, the golden first light on El Capitan, the chill in the air and the color of the fall leaves. The next step was to find a composition that embodied those components. After a short walk I came upon this vignette. It’s not the grand vista that one first imagines from this spot but, at least to me, it more accurately captures the “soul” of the location.
I purposely left the technical details of my last couple of posts because I felt them to be conflicting with the message of the post but I know that people like to see them. This simple scene contains a challenge that is worth commenting on.
Reflections can be difficult. The tendency is to focus on the reflection which often results in a loss of sharpness in portions of the frame. The distance to the object not the reflection, determines the focus. In this case, El Capitan was at infinity not the 2 foot distance to the reflection. To get the leaves and grass sharp and have reasonable sharpness in the reflection I set my aperture to f/11. I was using my Canon 24-70 at 55mm and was as low as my tripod would go. I tried several exposures but the blurring of the water seemed distracting so I brought the ISO up to 400, giving me a shutter speed of 1/5 of a second. I felt like it was just enough water motion to give it texture without being a distraction.
Cheers
Stars over the Valley
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on October 22, 2009
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When you’ve lived in the city or suburbs too long it’s easy to forget just how many stars are visible on a dark night. In my neighborhood I can usually make out the larger constellations but the Milky Way is completely out of the question. Even the North star, Polaris, can be difficult to see many nights. There’s just too much light pollution.
That was certain not the case with this photo. The second night of Gary’s last workshop we were teaching folks how to photograph stars. Some folks were trying to do star trails, some just shots of the sky. Having to get everyone over the hurdles of how to focus, how to set the camera for a long exposure and how to compose the shot is normal in such an exercise. I tried several 20 minute exposures but kept getting called away to help someone else. The result was that I wasn’t able to cover my lens when the odd car would come around the corner at the Tunnel viewpoint; all the shots were ruined.
About that time Gary announced that we were done and heading back to the hotel. Not wanting to be completely skunked I grabbed my fisheye lens and fired off a couple last shots. On my first attempt a car came around the bend and ruined the frame. The second exposure completed and looked alright with one exception; my head was jutting into the frame. By this point folks were all packed up and heading for the car so I only had time for one more. This is that last shot.
I was using a simple 30 second exposure on all three. To get the maximum amount of light I opened all the way up to f/2.8 and set my ISO at 1600. After doing some basic noise reduction in Photoshop I used a couple of “stacked” layers to bring out the stars. The fisheye lens delivers such a wide field of view that there’s actually a tree, that was behind me on the other side of the road, in the top right corner. It’s dark enough that it doesn’t shot up on most screens but it’s definitely there.
Cheers
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