The Trees

Plain old pine trees. Even more pines draw my attention. I am walking down the path to Yosemite Falls. The trees frame the falls. It is a sight where you never want to look anywhere else but the falls.

However if you turn your head you might see these yellow pines. The cannot be 30 yards off the path. Thousands of people walk right past them every day. You can probably count the people who see them on one hand.

I thought they had potential. Not to work into an image of the famous falls, but just as an image of trees.

I walked around and found a composition that framed several of them with a very yellowish one in the front. You could not see the falls and you could not see the path (nor people for that matter).

I looked at the upside down scene and saw nothing but trees and forest floor in the image. I made two images just to play with shallow and deep focus. The tourists walking past have no idea how great these trees look. They probably do not even notice me either, after all who has time for trees when a true wonder is just 300 yards away.

I packed up thinking trees, and I am they only one to see them today.

The Forest and the Trees

They say sometimes you cannot see the forest because of the trees. For a photographer it is often the opposite-you cannot see the trees for the forest.

Yosemite may be famous for big granite walls, big sequoias, and big waterfalls, but it is also heavily forested. Pine trees are fairly common and there are alot of them(really throughout the mountain west). It is easy to just see them as another grove of trees and to keep driving or walking. The trick to making a great image of a forest is to bring out charasterics of trees.

This particular stand somehow drew my attention. There were some factors that could make an image. The light on the trees was directional. The background had a different quality of light. The grove stood alone at the edge of a meadow and the trees were spaced nicely had good lines. In the mid morning the sun had still not reached them and it all came together.

I wanted to make an image that only showed the base of the trunks so I went with a longer lens (210mm) and I photographed the grasses and the trunks only. Going on the idea that less is more I had the light, shapes, and composition to show these few trunks and just a hint of the background meadow and the granite wall beyond. I found the trees, I have a forest, I made an image.

Out of the forest I have just trees.

Getting Wet

Standing in the river is sometimes the best way to get an image of it. When you stand on the bank you can take a picture of a river but stand in it and you can make an image out of being in it.

I was walking along the Merced River as it runs through Yosemite Valley. I could see El Capitan in the morning light. I had done some images from the bank but wanted something taken right from the middle of the water.

Normally, I do not like to haul the tripod out into a river bed barefoot, but the low river levels had left several gravel bars across it. A few big steps took me out into the river to a spot water flowed around me and I could really frame up the big rock right from the middle.

And my shoes were still dry.

Seeing the Light

There is something about Yosemite and large format view cameras that just go together. Maybe that is the legacy of Ansel. Maybe it is because the rocks are so big.

One of my favorite images of Yosemite is not even by Ansel. It is of Ansel. There is a great photograph by Cedric Wright of Ansel up on top of a platform he had built on top of his car making an image with Half Dome in the background. Ansel is up there with tripod and an 8x10 (or maybe 11x14) is on it. It is a wonderful image that I really like as a photographer. Maybe it is because it shows us not Ansel's work, but AA at work.

After looking at the image and after looking at the amazing prints at the gallery, I thought it was just wrong to photograph Yosemite with anything less than the biggest camera you owned. I guess you could call that a "seeing the light" kind of moment.

Those are the Cathedral Rocks in the background of this image. They are big and impressive. The late afternoon light is bright across the valley. The rocks are side lit. Even on a mostly clear day they are still a "wow" sight. So I went out to the edge of a meadow and went to work to make an image.

Standing in a green meadow. Big rocks. Directional light. Using a big camera. Yep, that is what it is all about. I guess I do see the light.

Ghosts

I was photographing in the early light along the Merced River in Yosemite. After spending the predawn at a famous overlook the light got very boring and flat from the clear sky. I needed to find a place I could photograph without the sky impacting the image.

I found a spot along the Merced River. The river was moving clear and fast. It was not very deep and many boulder and rocks were visible. The forest around me was still rather dark and I knew I could do some longer images here.

I was hoping for a chance at a long time exposure where the water became a blur. I framed a composition of rocks, river and the trees beyond. The light was flat and the sky was clear but in the deepness of Yosemite Valley it was still dark enough that it should work.

The images were long (stopping down to f/45) and adding a polarizer helped lengthen them more, I was taking 15 and 30 second exposures.

With that length of time I knew I could get some nice effects on film. I decided I wanted to get that into this image too, so I timed this longer exposure to coincide with me changing sheets in the 4x5. I started this picture, I am not in it, then I walked to the camera and stopped the exposure, changed sheets, and walked out. That left me as a ghost on this picture.

I really like it. The ghost of me taking pictures where the ghosts of great photographers roam.

By the Light of the Moon

What is a photographer to do in cloudless weather? Well when you are in Yosemite and it is cloudless and there is a full moon you photograph at night!

I was met with sky that was way too clear and cloudless on this trip. California was in a drought and even the famed falls of Yosemite were just a trickle when they should be roaring.

I was hoping for dramatic sky, puffy clouds, and maybe a clearing storm. What I got was endless clear sky. However, with a full moon I went nocturnal, getting out at 3am and photographing the sights of Yosemite lit by a full moon. So for six mornings I was at all the major sights but instead of a crowd, I had them to myself. Me, the 4x5, and the starry sky.

Yes, I had Tunnel View to myself. If you have ever been to Yosemite you were probably at Tunnel View with 100 people and 40 of those had tripods. By going out at night I had it to myself. And Valley View, and El Capitan Meadow, and Yosemite Falls, and the bridge, etc. Being alone at a major site in as busy of a park as Yosemite is almost impossible, but go out at night and it is all yours.

I set up 15-20 minute exposures and the moon lit the rocks while the stars streaked across the sky. It was fun, the images look neat and I got to photograph without the crowds.

Here is one such night. Yosemite Falls are in the background beyond the meadow but the trickle they are barely register on film or sensor. I visited all the major view points and was lucky enough to make some neat images.

The weather gave me lemons, but with a full moon I made lemonade.

In the house of Saint Ansel

Over the summer I spent a week in Yosemite. It was my fourth trip and it is a place that keeps drawing me back.

Every time I photograph here, I see the famous images Ansel made. John Muir may have saved Yosemite, but Ansel took it's fame to a whole new level with his photography. The Ansel Adams Gallery is still doing business in the park. By the way- this is as much of a must see stop as anything else in the park. Not only can you see the work of Ansel, but many other modern masters of the Sierra- Bill Neil, John Sexton, Alan Ross, and Mike Frye to name a few.

When I was in the park this summer I set about planning which icons I would photograph. High on my list was El Capitan. This huge wedge of granite dominates the front half of Yosemite valley and is a draw for climbers from around the world.

I photographed El Cap from several different locations. Each one seemingly already made famous by a great photograph (or three). That makes it difficult to be there, because every place I stopped I thought of how Ansel made this or that from here or of that rock. It also did not help that the sky was "severe clear" and the summer drought in California had already dried up most of the waterfalls by June. Still, this was Yosemite and I was not about to let things get in the way of being there with my camera.

One morning, I was down along the Merced River and could see El Cap rising above the river and the trees. It was already well on in the morning (at least for me). I normally do most of my photography in the twilight before the sun appears in the sky. One thing about Yosemite, though, is that it is so deep the light does not get into the valley for over an hour after sunrise. That was the case here. The light was just striking the east face of El Capitan and I knew I had to get an image.

It required a little bit of work and a wide angle lens. The mountain is so big you need a wide lens to get the river and the rock which towers above it. You also need a good filter to hold back the bright sky from the darker river area. It took a while and I made use of the view camera's ability of rise and the grad filter to keep the sky from blowing out. I took a color image but I already had the idea that this might be a good trip and location to do conversion to black and white.

After I made the image, I just stood there staring up at the big rock. It sure is impressive from any angle and I know why Ansel kept coming here.