Short day trip to Yosemite

Dee · November 3, 2008

Ed and I went to visit Nee and Bill Davis to go on a day trip to Yosemite. Unfortunately we got off to a late start and driving the mountain roads took longer than the super highways Ed and I are used to. We discovered the rock slide is still there.

After we entered the park we saw that fire danger was high.

We stopped at one vista point. I was hoping for some autumn color, but this was the best I could find. The leaves were yellow green, not yet yellow.

As we approached tunnel view, I was taken with the atmospheric conditions and I took some time to shoot frames for a vertical pano and a horizontal pano. Here is the vertical one, and I wound up only using 2 of the 6 frames I shot. I did a bit of work in post, with separate layers for emphasizing various areas. I could not believe the clouds were actually moving, because they looked still to me, but frames taken for panoramas don't lie. And, even tho I had a tripod in the car, we were in a hurry, so these were hand held. No amount of processing though has managed to capture the special quality of light I saw that day, there was a misty quality in the distance, that just doesn't show. I also noted the clouds on the left which look like they have a "seam" in them, but that is what they really looked like!

I also zoomed in for a close up. But I was disappointed that the misty quality just didn't show up.

I was pleased to see the park service cleared out a lot of underbrush and trees that in the past threatened my clear view of the valley. I was also surprised to see so many people so late in the season, I guess it's truly an all season park.

After being hustled out of the tunnel view area by Ed and Nee (they know me when I get set into picture taking mode) we drove on to Glacier Point, which Ed assured me we'd been to before. He mentioned the trail, and then I instantly felt pain on my shins! (This was from the late 70s or the early 80s.) But I had no recollection of what Glacier Point looked like. I'm sure in going back through more photos and slides I should find something, but the good thing about not remembering is that everything is new again!

The entire day had some strange light, and Glacier Point was no different. I took some snaps, Nee wandered off to another area and we finally got together when it looked as if the light was gone. I was sitting on the split rail fence resting my aching back when Nee sat down next to me. I was looking north at her she was looking south to the parking while talking to me.

All of a sudden I jumped up (scaring Nee and Ed) and I yelled, "look," and off I went, as fast as I could. This is what I saw (with a LOT of post processing).

After the alpen glow finally disappeared Nee started talking to some of the photographers that had been taking pictures at the same time we were. It was interesting to see in our immediate area, a Nikon shooter, a Canon shooter, a Sony alpha shooter (me!

) and another Canon shooter, Nee. As you can see the photographers looked happy at what they witnessed of nature's delight. Two of the photographers were from the bay area too, like me and Ed.

Of course we had to check out the rest rooms before our journey home. Unfortunately one set of rest rooms (Nee told us they were the flush ones) were locked up tight. We had to stand in line for our turn, and we were blasted with a horrible smell upon opening the door. Everyone around us expressed extreme disgust. I suppose it was our unfortunate luck to be the last of the weekend users. I know, it was better than finding a big tree or a friendly bush, but only barely. :rofl

All settled in, seat belts buckled up, we headed for the park exit. Along the way we ran into a forest fire. Not sure what was going on, we pulled over. Ed said he saw people so we assumed it was somewhat under control.

I am so annoyed with myself. I know we were in a hurry to get home, and I know I was in pain, I know it was pitch black dark, but I really should have taken the time to get out the tripod to take these photos. Remember the "very high" fire danger sign?.

We watched the beauty of the scene for a moment, and tripod or not, I had to try to capture what I saw. This reduced photo is probably the best of the lot, but it's way too noisy and a little too blurry for prime time.

As we stopped at the park exit to use "real" rest rooms one more time. I looked up at the starry sky seeing more stars than I usually do and I just thoroughly enjoyed the moment. Then back in the car again we started for the exit booths, we saw the "prescribed burn" signs which answered our question about the forest fire.