sierra nevada – Page 9

August 20, 2010January 14, 2013

Lightplay On Granite (Photo of the week)

As the sun sets, it casts one final beam across wild lupine and granite boulders, Sierra National Forest, CA

This week’s photo is all about light. If you take away the dramatic lighting effects from this photo, you are left with something pretty mundane – a forest and some rocks. But with the sun filtering through the trees as a star burst, lighting the granite boulders and contrasting them with the darker forest, an interesting image is born.

Before this composition found me, I was pointing my camera in the opposite direction and quickly becoming uninspired. Sure, I was shooting from the edge of a cliff and had a large, open, forested valley below me, but no specific feature stood out and grabbed my attention. I turned around and saw that the sun was setting behind the trees, and knew then that I would use sunlight as my subject.

It didn’t take much hunting around to find this line of granite boulders illuminated by the setting sun. Now I had a decision to make – include the sun in the image or not? Since I was shooting at f/16 (as I often do with landscapes), I knew I’d get a nice, tight star burst effect from the sun. I ultimately decided to include it in the image because I wanted to balance the lower right of the image which included a lot of light, with the light of the sun in the upper left.

Another thing to worry about when shooting into the sun is that the camera’s meter ~~can~~ will be thrown off. If I shot this at the camera’s recommended shutter speed (I was in aperture priority), the forest would have been rendered brighter and the granite would have been completely blown out. I dropped the exposure compensation by two stops, which gave me a photo much closer to what I was seeing with my eyes.

I am pretty happy with the result. It is not the typical grandiose landscape typical of Sierra photography, but a more intimate scene. Hopefully it conveys more than just the visual aspect, but a real sense of place – the distant echos of forest birds, the sharp smell of pine needles, the thumping of the heart at high elevations. Ultimately for me, it was my latest reminder that when in doubt, I should always follow the light.

August 18, 2010January 14, 2013

Upcoming publication – Backpacker Magazine

Watch for two of my images that will appear in the October 2010 issue of Backpacker Magazine. The following two photos will appear in an article about the Ray Lakes loop trail in King’s Canyon National Park.

Mist Falls is situated along the south fork of the King\'s River as it flows down from the Sierra Nevada high country, Kings Canyon National Park — Mist Falls is situated along the south fork of the King's River as it flows down from the Sierra Nevada high country, King's Canyon National Park

The campsites of Lower Paradise Valley line the banks of the south fork of King\'s River, Kings Canyon National Park — The campsites of Lower Paradise Valley line the banks of the south fork of King's River, King's Canyon National Park

August 5, 2010January 14, 2013

Food poisoning, ten hours of driving, and all I got were these lousy photographs!

A forest of pine covers the floor of Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park

It all started out well enough. My friend Steve and I headed out of town last Thursday night for what looked like a wonderfully scenic three-day backpacking trip. We were going to start in Sierra National Forest, loop into southern Yosemite, and then into Ansel Adams Wilderness. The drive went well, the 30 miles of dirt road were easier than we were expecting, and we found a nice spot to disperse camp at the trail head.

Then, sitting around the campfire before bed, my stomach started feeling pretty bad. I thought maybe it was the altitude, as we were camped above 8000 feet. I went to bed expecting to acclimatize over night and feel better in the morning. Wrong – I felt worse. I’ll spare you the details, but it soon became apparent that I couldn’t hold anything down, including water. My head was pounding with dehydration. Definitely no way to start a rigorous 15+ mile day!

From Glacier Point, the visitor is granted views of Yosemite Valley, Half Dome, and the Yosemite high country.

After much deliberation, we decided to skip the trip and pack it in. Thankfully, Steve is one of those easy-going guys who can be very flexible when plans need to change. We were both disappointed, but agreed to tackle the trip another time. Since we were close to Yosemite, we decided to pop into the park for some quick vistas before heading back to the Bay Area.

Trees grow out of rounded granite overlooking Nevada Falls from Glacier Point, Yosemite National Park

So, okay, the photographs I took weren’t “lousy”, but not really what I was expecting from a trip into the backcountry. I much prefer photographing areas with few or no people – preferably that are hard to get to. As it was, we were stuck with what is the hustle and bustle of a Yosemite vista point in mid-summer. In general, I tend to stay away from these spots for two reasons. First, they are frequently crowded to the point that it breaks my ability to connect with the nature that surrounds me. Getting out into the Sierra only to see people pushing and shoving to get a view (Glacier Point, anyone?) is not my idea of solitude! Second, from a photographic standpoint, I don’t like taking photos that have literally been taken millions of times before.

Although this landscape has been captured by cameras millions of times, it is still beautiful to behold

Needless to say, I was in a bad mood heading back last Friday. However, after getting home and processing the photos I took, I was reminded why all those people were there. Everyone can get to these spots, and they are among the most beautiful in the world. I remember the first time I saw Yosemite and how awe-struck I was. I would never want to deny anyone else that same experience, no matter how grumpy I get from a missed backpacking trip. After all, there is a reason they call these scenic vista points.

December 15, 2009January 14, 2013

Lakeside Solitude (Photo of the week)

A backpacker sits in the early morning sun, enjoying the peace and quiet of a mountain lake.

This week’s photo was taken on a backpacking trip this summer to one of my favorite lakes. Boundary Lake in northern Yosemite is one of those perfect High Sierra lakes with smooth granite dropping off into crystal clear water. Thanks go to my brother Jake for offering to act as my model for this shot.

With this photo, I was attempting to capture the feeling of waking up in such a beautiful, quiet place, and the promise of the warmth of the morning sun as it rose over the eastern crest. There is nothing quite like brisk dawn air, a hot cup of coffee, and no sound other than the gentle lapping of water against the rocks.