Last May, I went to a photography workshop in Yosemite headed by veteran outdoor photographers Dave Wyman and William G. Hartshorn. Due to heavy snow and rain during the winter, the waterfalls were powerful and the rainbows plentiful. After the workshop, Dave and William invited us to go along with them for a bonus expedition to the nearby Gold Rush ghost town of Hornitos.

Here I offer just a few samples of my pictures from the trip; a more complete collection (over 300 shots total, culled from around 1400 exposures taken during the trip) can be found in the following galleries:

Driving to Yosemite (10 May)

Yosemite, Day 1 (11 May)

Yosemite, Day 2 (12 May)

Yosemite, Day 3 (early morning, 13 May)

Hornitos (late morning, 13 May)

The vast majority of my pictures were taken with my Canon 5D Mark II using about half a dozen different Nikkor AI and AI-S manual focus prime lenses ranging from 20mm to 300mm. A handful of pictures were taken using a Canon Elan film camera loaded with Velvia 50, but unfortunately the Elan did not seem to like the focus confirmation chip in my Nikon-to-Canon lens mount adapters. The Elan locked up frequently (which it never does with Canon lenses) and a number of shots were lost. (My fault for assuming that something that worked on the 5D Mark II would also work on a 20-year-old film camera.) Furthermore, the lab that scanned my slides did a mediocre job; the original slides lack the blown-out highlights and muddy shadows of the scanned images. For this reason, the shots here are all from the 5D Mark II, but there are a few from the Elan in the galleries.

1. Driving to Yosemite on Monday: A field near Catheys Valley


2. The Merced River, seen from the side of the road not far from El Portal


3. Trees near Bridalveil Fall


4. El Capitan


5. The Three Brothers


6. Bridalveil Fall rainbow


7. Fog and snow in the heights


8. A rainbow ends in the water flowing from the Yosemite Falls


9. One of the Meyer barns at Foresta


10. Dogwood bloom


11. On the grounds of the Wawona Hotel


12. The Yosemite Chapel with the Yosemite Falls in the background, near sunset


13. Workshop leaders William G. Hartshorn (left) and Dave Wyman


14. Half Dome at sunset


15. Early morning rainbow at the base of the Yosemite Falls


16. Fern Spring reflections


17. View into an abandoned garage in Hornitos


18. George Meyer, former owner of the barns at Foresta, at home in Hornitos


19. St. Catherine's Church, Hornitos (with a few of my fellow workshop participants)


C&C welcome. Thanks for looking!

Really enjoyed all galleries, 12,16,18 are my favorites.

Nice series!

I thought I was the only person that knew about Hornitos! It's about 20-30 minutes from my house. My kids love to play there and daddy likes to take pictures! I've met George too!

Craig, your photos are wonderful; number 16 is fabulous. You must have been so pleased! How may days were you out? I've bookmarked your site and will look forward to the viewing your gallery. JustPeachy2

Thanks, everyone!

I left home on Monday, we spent Tuesday, Wednesday, and early Thursday morning in Yosemite, then I drove home on Thursday after our visit to Hornitos and a farewell lunch in Merced. It was a great experience.

Nice shots! Sorry to hear the lab botches the scans. Thanks for sharing the picts. I saw some interesting new perspectives on some familiar places (love the chapel/Yosemite Fall shot).

Thanks! It's interesting that people really like that chapel shot with the falls in the background. I like it too, but my wife's reaction was, "Thomas Kinkade."