When I was in graduate school one of my professors said something like, “The thing about Shakespeare is that in spite of all the people who say how great he is, he really is pretty good.” I was reminded of this comment at one point last week as I was thinking that Yosemite is the same way. I don’t know anyone who has gone to Yosemite and not raved about how incredible it is, and when you’re there yourself, you realize (perhaps not for the first time) that all of those people are right. It is one of the most amazing places on earth. Though I live only 3+ hours away, I don’t get there often enough, hardly at all in fact. My recent trips with a camera have not produced good photos partially because I just didn’t know where to go, and partially because even Yosemite needs sweet light on its magnificent features to move from the ‘magnificent to behold in person’ to the ‘magnificent to photograph.’ I just returned from five days in the park with three friends, one of whom knows the layout much better than most, and who generously took us to some of his favorite locations for getting good images.
The photo above was made on top of Sentinel Dome, the third highest elevation in the valley after Cloud’s Rest and Half Dome. The view is spectacular at noon, and when you get lucky enough to get some color as the sun sets, a phenomenon no more likely in Yosemite than anywhere else (i.e., you can make a long tough hike hoping for great light only to get a cloud in front of the sun at the crucial time), you can make quite a nice photograph indeed.
I have lots of notes and comments to make about our trip, photo tips, amusing stories, and some photos to show as well. Unfortunately for my plans to share all of those thing here, I am leaving for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone day after tomorrow. So I will try to put things up over the coming weeks as I’m able, probably some MotoGP mixed with some Yosemite. A perfect combination, as one of my intended posts will explain. 🙂
Notes on the above image: this was made with a Nikon D700 and 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, shots in portrait mode as a panorama and put together in Photoshop. The uncropped image is over 30 megapixels, and consists of two layers, sky and mountains, each adjusted for proper exposure an combined via a layer mask, rather than using HDR to combine bracketed exposures.
