Posts Tagged yosemite
Stars over Tenaya Canyon
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on June 19, 2010
Click to Enlarge
In December, I’ll be giving a talk for a local chapter of The Photographic Society of America. They’ve asked me to speak about night photography at their quarterly meeting. In preparation for the talk, I’ve been going through some of my night shots and stumbled on this one.
Gary Hart got me hooked on shooting at night. I took this image 3 years ago, nearly to the day on one of his workshops. It was a small group but we became fast friends. I still hear from many of those folks on a pretty regular basis. One of the reasons we got so close was the sheer amount of time we were together. Gary had this great idea to do a workshop specifically around shooting moonlight. We shot with the moon rising, the moon setting and landscapes using the moon as the only light source. The timing of the workshop was such that we were experiencing nearly the longest days of the year. What all that boiled down to was about 12 hours of sleep in 4 days. It was exhausting but I came back with some great images and made some new friends. Near the end of the workshop Gary asked if I’d be interested in assisting on his workshops, which I’ve been doing ever since.
This shot was taken from Glacier Point in Yosemite. Glacier Point sits directly across from Half Dome. From several vantage points in the area, you can see Yosemite Falls, Nevada Falls and Vernal falls. You can also see the Little Yosemite valley and Tenaya Canon. Even though this is a 30 second exposure, the stars appear very crisp. Their sharpness is due to the fact that I was shooting a very wide angle lens (Tokina 12-24 f/4 @ 13mm). Stars appear to move because of the rotation of the Earth. The wideness of the frame meant that in 30 seconds the stars moved only a small percentage of the distance across the frame. On a longer lens, the streaking would have been quite noticeable.
Cheers
Forest in infrared
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on June 7, 2010
Click to Enlarge
The human eye is an amazing device but we can see only a portion of the visible spectrum. I love the otherworldly feel that this infrared image of the forest, in Yosemite, brings.
Infrared has been within reach of film photographers for years but digital has really helped advance the technique. It’s a great addition to your bag as it extends the shooting day. Traditional landscape photographers rarely shoot in the harsh midday sun but that’s exactly when the best IR images are made.
This is an older image but I found myself missing Yosemite and the forest so I went digging through the archives for an appropriate image. To really exaggerate the scale I used the widest lens I owned at the time; a Tokina 12-24. It was just barely wide enough.
Stormy layers
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on June 3, 2010
Not much in the way of witty banter today, just a pretty shot. This image was take from the same location as the image in my “I am and island” post. There was a total of 4 minutes between the shots so not much changed. It does underscore just how many compositional opportunities exist in this often photographed location.
Cheers
Bridal Veil fall and spring snow
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on May 20, 2010
Click to Enlarge
Any day you have snow in Yosemite valley is a good day, especially when it happens with spring water conditions. During the last workshop we got a really nice mix of weather. Rain and snow may not make for the most comfortable shooting conditions but I’d much rather be a little uncomfortable than have blank blue skies. Having that much water in the falls and fresh snow it the trees was a real treat.
I don’t do a lot of black and white images but the treatment really worked on this shot. Although snow was still falling, there wasn’t nearly as much as there would be with a winter storm. The result was a pretty flat scene. Converting to monochrome really brought out the snow in the trees and the image’s real story: what was happening in the sky. Rather than set the camera to black and white I prefer to shoot in color and manage the conversion myself in Adobe Lightroom, much the way that classic B&W film shooters use colored filters. The other bonus is still having the frame in color if I choose to process that at a later date.
Cheers
Why I never delete anything
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on May 18, 2010
Click to Enlarge
I often get asked questions about digital workflow. In particular, folks want to know the process I use to pick and reject images. It’s honestly something that I’m not very good at. Right after a shoot I usually go through my images and pick the few that really stand out. I’ll work on those until I’m happy with them and then start going back through the rest of the images. Usually is the important word.
Yesterday while organizing some files on my hard drive I stumbled on this moonlit shot from November 2008. I honesty don’t recall ever seeing it and barely remember taking it. Opening this image for the first time felt a little bit like winning the lottery. It’s a good thing I never delete anything.
I wonder what else I can find?
Cheers
Fleeting moments
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on May 13, 2010
Click to Enlarge
If you’re a fan of waterfalls, spring time in Yosemite is right up your alley. Yosemite Falls, Bridal Veil fall and the rest of the icons are booming. Throughout the rest of the park there are dozens of ephemeral falls, many without names. Little more than a stain on the granite during much of the year, these little falls can be a real treat in spring.
This ephemeral fall is large enough that it actually carries a name: Wildcat Falls. It drops total distance of 630 feet in several steps. Just west of the Cascades, the upper portion of the falls is visible from the road. There is also an unmarked turnout on the road and short trail takes you to the shady base of the falls seen here.
Composing this scene presented a couple of problems that had to be addressed. While the base of the falls was in shade, the rock face and foliage above the falls was very brightly lit. I collapsed the legs of my tripod putting my camera position only about 18″ from the surface of the stream. It was at this moment that I discovered the other problem. The cable on my remote shutter release is 24″ long.
After blowing and shaking enough water out of my remote to make it work again I start composing the shot. Solving the brightness issue was simple, just exclude that portion from the frame. With the camera very low, I used my Canon 17-40 at it’s widest to exaggerate the perspective. I tried a number of angles until finally deciding on this composition with the rock in the foreground. It’s a simple element but it really strengthens the composition. I set aperture to f/11 to provide ample depth of field, adjusted my polarizer to take the reflection off of the water and took the shot.
This fall will most likely be gone by my next trip to the valley so I’ll have to wait until next spring to photograph it again.
Cheers
Dogwood along the Merced River
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on May 11, 2010
Click to Enlarge
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
What a difference a month (and some snow) makes
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on May 3, 2010
Click to Enlarge
People often ask me what is the best time of year to visit Yosemite. While winter is probably my personal favorite, there is no best time. The park is beautiful year round and unless you see it in several different seasons you’re doing yourself a disservice.
The park’s transformations are the most dramatic during the changing of seasons. Nothing highlights those transformations like this image. I shot basically this same scene last month with a completely different result. Higher spring water levels and the gift of a blanket of fresh snow made for a completely different feel.
Photographically, this is a challenging scene. Taken from full shade, the dynamic range in this frame is well above what the camera is capable of recording. One technique would have been to capture several frames, at various exposures, and combine them via software. Rather rely on the computer, I used a Singh-Ray 3 stop hard edged split neutral density filter. The level horizon allowed me to place the filter transition directly down the middle of the frame.
With the filter balancing the exposure there was another problem that I needed to address. Reflections are always darker, generally by about 1 stop, than the subject being reflected. If I didn’t point it out you may not notice but something might not seem “just right.” With the filter on the top half of the frame, I needed to darken the reflection to keep it natural looking. Since I always use a polarizer during the day, it was a simple fix. I simply rotated the polarizer to produce the maximum reflection and then backed it off to darken it slightly.
Even though I teach digital image processing, my preference is always to get the picture as close as possible in the camera rather than resort to processing tricks. It’s much more satisfying, to me, to do it that way.
Cheers
Morning light on Cook’s Meadow
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on April 30, 2010
Click to Enlarge
Yesterday marked the end last Yosemite workshop with Gary until fall. I’m always sad to see them end but after 4 solid days of shooting and instruction I look forward to getting back home. Mother nature provided an amazing variety of weather conditions that made for some very interesting, and often challenging, shooting. We went from sunshine and moonbows on Monday, to rain, snow and some hail by Thursday.
Similar to the winter workshop, after awakening to a fresh blanket of snow in the valley, Gary and I had to switch from photography instructors to slave drivers. Spring snows seldom last in Yosemite so we rushed the group to as many locations as possible in a race against sunlight and rising temperatures. I shot this in Cook’s Meadow, near the base of Yosemite falls. Even though the sun had barely crested the ridge, the layer of snow on the meadow was already starting to disappear.
Rather than shoot the standard composition from this location, featuring Half Dome, I opted for something that spoke to the morning and the conditions. I dropped my tripod legs down to their lowest position and composed this fairly wide shot with my Canon 24-70 at 30mm. I felt that close snow in the foreground was important to the essence of the scene. I also wanted the sun to appear as a starburst so I placed the camera where it was almost entirely in shade. At 30mm f/8 would have given me plenty of depth of field but I chose f/20 because of the effect on the sun. The recipe for a starburst is pretty simple: narrow point light source + small aperture == starburst.
Students frequently ask what aperture I use. For many scenes, that answer is f/8 or f/11. I also tell them that I rarely go above f/16 unless I have a special reason, because of complications that can arise from diffraction. This, however, is one such exception.
Cheers
I am an island
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on April 28, 2010
Click to Enlarge
If you’ve ever photographed at Tunnel View in Yosemite you might recognize this tree. Precariously perched on the talus slope of El Captain, it often stands out as a striking feature. In late afternoon it drops to silhouette in contrast to the golden last light of the day on the granite face. Yesterday afternoon, while shooting with the latest workshop group, I watched intently as it drifted in and out of obscurity as clouds formed in the valley.
In an attempt at full disclosure, I need to tell you about a genetic condition that I have. My family refers to as “wrong line gene.” In layman’s terms, it simply refers to the tendency for any line or place, that I’m standing, to instantly be transferred into the wrong line or place. It’s an affliction that I’ve lived with some time and my family has adjusted. When we travel my wife and son always choose a different TSA line at the airport. I often use it to my advantage when photographing with a group. I can make objects and scene components appear and disappear almost at will; just by walking to or from my camera. I’m a giver. It’s what I do.
For 20 or 30 minutes I thought for sure that my genetic condition would prevent me from getting this shot. All of a sudden, the tree emerged from what appeared to be a sea of mist. Already waiting with my 100-400mm lens at 400mm, I adjusted my exposure by metering on brightest portion of the cloud and adjusting my shutter speed to +1 stop above neutral. I gave my polarizer a quick twist and only managed to fire off a handful of shots before having a relapse; the tree disappeared.
Cheers
- Binary Emulsion on FacebookVisit my gallery to see more of my images.Binary Emulsion Gallery
Get Filter Calc for your iPhone or Touch.
Back up your computer, before you wish you had. I use it and you can try it free for 15 days.
Translator
