Posts Tagged winter
Sometimes you just can’t help yourself
Posted by backup in Photography on March 9, 2010
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Last week I talked about trying to find fresh images in a very heavily photographed National Park. Today’s image is the result of succumbing to the urge to “shoot the icon.” While I normally go out of my way to avoid this type of shot, sometimes you just can’t help yourself.
This is another image from last month’s workshop. We woke to a clearing storm and fresh snow in Yosemite valley. Knowing that the morning sun would quickly erase the night’s work, we rushed our group to as many icons as we could before the light got too harsh. One of those iconic shots was the Elm tree in Cook’s Meadow. A number of photographers, Ansel Adams included, have some pretty well known images of that scene.
After giving the group far too little time, to do the scene justice, we called for them to return to the cars to head to the next spot. The sound of snowing already dropping from the trees added to the sense of urgency. While folks packed up their gear I stood, next to the car, looking up at the falls. The frosty granite, the snow in the trees and the tremendous depth of the scene was just too much to resist. I grabbed my camera and fired off a couple of shots. Sometimes you just have to give in.
Cheers
Nature’s Monochrome
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on February 25, 2010
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Some photographers choose to shoot in color, some in black and white. Occasionally, nature makes the decision for you. Often, I write about the differences between our own vision and that of the camera. Effective photographers exploit those differences rather than bemoan them.
On my most recent trip to the valley, Mother Nature really kept things mixed up. I can’t even count the number of times the conditions swung from rain to snow, from snow to clearing and from sunny back to rain. The constantly changing conditions made for a physically demanding 4 days. The swiftness of those changes required that we push the workshop group pretty hard. I’m not ashamed to admit I was a bit gassed after 4 days of nearly non-stop nature photography. I’m always a bit melancholy at the end of a workshop, but this time the feeling was accompanied by a slight sense of relief.
I made this image near Swinging Bridge in Yosemite last Monday morning. While the group was soaking up the classic reflection scene of Yosemite Falls and the Merced River, I was looking for other compositions. Honestly is wasn’t that hard. When covered in snow, just about the entire park is photogenic.
To isolate this scene I used my Canon 100-400 on my 7D body. The sky was still very cloudy from an overnight storm giving a “soft box” effect to the whole park. The resulting light effectively removed any trace of color from this winter scene. To my eye, the color was perceptible. In the camera the subdued lighting and the compressed tones were rendered as nearly colorless. In a genre of photography where the saturation adjustment slider, in Photoshop, is notoriously abused I’m okay with that.
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
Happy 2010
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on January 5, 2010
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To steal a quote, stumbled upon while browsing the net, “Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer you are to the end, the faster it goes.” After how fast 2009 seemed to blaze by, I think it’s appropriate. I hope the New Year finds you and your loved ones well.
It’s a challenge to go to a place as widely photographed as Yosemite and come back with fresh images. The challenge isn’t the availability of the subjects as much as learning to see them. Once seen, the next step is figuring out how to make it into an image.
On New Year’s day morning, I did what I often do when presented with overcast skies, I went to Bridal Veil fall. Bridal Veil is one of the few waterfalls in Yosemite that flows all year. While the water fall is a beautiful sight, most of the photographic opportunities are in the three streams flowing out from its base. Often requiring scrambling over rocks, you can be completely alone while the tourists stream up the path to the viewing area at base of the fall.
What caught my eye here was the foam on the top of the water. Directly above my location was a small cascade that was creating these bubbles on the surface of the water. Caught on a long exposure, I knew they would imply motion. The trick was finding something else to put in the frame. I walked around the area, doing my best to keep from falling in, looking through my camera to find a scene. (When shooting in the area, my Canon 100-400 is my most useful tool. Using a long lens helps compress perspective and lets you “carve” out scenes and make them stand alone.) After finding this leaf, I knew I had my shot. While seemingly simple enough it took 10 frames, at varying exposures, to get this pleasing pattern. I settled on f/16 and 3.2 seconds.
Finding a scene like this is far more satisfying than creating it. While I didn’t place this leave, in the spirit of full disclosure, I did wash away some foam stuck to the near side of the rock. I almost never place a subject but I have no issue with removing a distraction. While something that could easily have been taken care of during processing I prefer to do it in the field.
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
Cold Fusion
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on April 14, 2009
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Below Bridal Veil falls in Yosemite, the runoff splits into 3 separate streams before flowing into the Merced river. It’s a wonderfully photographic area that often gets over looked by the throng of tourists that come see the falls every day. The platform at the base of the falls is frequently the only place that they stop and look. In terms of photographing the falls, in it’s entirety, the parking lot is actually a better vantage point.
I like to work this area while it’s in shade or on an overcast day. The patterns, colors and motion give limitless subjects. It’s an especially nice area in the fall when a carpet of leaves add accents against the wet granite.
My usual tool of choice is my 100-400. I often don’t even bring my other lenses when I’m bouldering up one of the streams. Using a long lens, I’m able to isolate tiny cascades or create abstractions. I find that approach much more interesting than trying to capture a grand vista. I generally start at the bottom of the 3rd stream and work my way up, over the boulders, to the platform at the top and then walk down. Walking and climbing over the wet granite isn’t without hazards. I’ve slipped and fallen a number of time but I keep going back.
This image was taken near the top of the middle stream. I was at 400mm on my Canon 5D. I set the exposure to 1/8 second at f/16 and ISO 100. I wanted to maintain the feeling of motion in the water without loosing the detail and feel of the surface of the water. I also made sure that I had the snow “tack sharp” to add a contrasting texture to the scene.
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 »
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