Posts Tagged valley view
Dogwood along the Merced River
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on May 11, 2010
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Yosemite’s dogwood are my favorite trees in the park. While brilliantly pink in the fall, it’s their delicate spring blooms that people generally remember. Catching that bloom can prove to be tricky.
Last month many folks in the spring workshop had hoped to shoot the bloom but they were largely denied. A few blooms could be found throughout the park but barely any of them in really photographable locations.
Last week I made a last minute decision to head to the park and try to catch the bloom that I’d missed during the workshop. I was in the park for less than 24 hours but came back with some successful images nonetheless. I found this pretty scene along the Merced river about 100 yards upstream from the Valley View parking area (sometimes called Gates of the Valley).
By the time I made it to Yosemite, last Friday, it was already early afternoon. Although an approaching storm was forecast, the skies were blank and blue. After driving the valley loop to get an idea of the conditions I stopped at Valley View because I’d seen some dogwood starting to bloom two weeks previously. As my family walked downstream near the parking area, I grabbed my gear and started walking up the road towards El Capitan.
To create the image I used my Canon 24-70 and my Canon 5D. The bloom in the foreground was positioned in front of some other foliage hanging over the river. After finding my composition I started playing with apertures to see how they changed the depth of field (DOF). In bright sun the DOF preview button works really well. Since most cameras focus with the lens at it’s widest aperture, not the aperture that you’ve chosen, DOF preview is good tool to see what the resulting image will look like. The caveat is that it doesn’t work well with dim light or very narrow apertures. After some experimentation I chose f/4 to get most of the bloom in focus and maintain the specular highlights in the background.
This was only the 4th frame that I took during the trip. Stay tuned to see what the rest of the memory card holds.
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
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
Missing Yosemite
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on August 11, 2009
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Summer is always a slow time for my photography. A couple of factors come into play. The first is that Yosemite Valley in the summer is a zoo. It gets flooded by the unwashed masses in their rented RVs. Traffic and crowds are what I try to get away from, not go to. I go to Yosemite to reduce my stress level, not increase it.
Another problem is that the early summer is generally a very busy time for my “day job” and this year was no exception. The California fiscal year ends in June. Every agency that has unspent IT dollars tries to ram through a bunch of last minute purchases, often just for the sake of spending the money. All of those systems end up shipping at the same time, making me a very busy person.
Usually Bonnie and I try to get away to the Yosemite high country for a few days each summer but schedules made that difficult. Other than one overnight stop before the July 4th holiday I haven’t spent any time there since mid-May. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to finally break away spend some time there sometime in the next few weeks.
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