Yosemite and Mono Lake Fall colors

Sunnyvalejohn

Just wanted to share a few images from my recent trip to Mono Lake and Yosemite in early October. It was 90 degrees the first few days and then an early snow dropped 6 inches of snow! The fall colors together with a fresh snow was a nice surprise!

I am partial to water, sunsets, moons and reflections and will go out of my way to chase these.

The "Painterly Aspens in Snow" was a new technique that a friend of mine uses quite often and I thought I would try - free hand panning (one of those few times the camera is off of the tripod!). I have quite a few images that DIDN'T turn out - this will take some time to perfect. I am VERY eager to see this printed on canvas.

The "Storm over Mono Lake" image was captured on a day with 1-2 foot waves that created this salt-brine foam around the edge of the lake - the 20-30 mph winds and sub-30 degree weather presented some challenges for this shot. I opted for a long exposure (4 second) to smooth out the waves to give a really mystical and different look of Mono Lake.

Critique, Comments and feedback are appreciated. Let me know which images you like the best!

Thanks,
John

"Reflections in the Eastern Sierra"



"Sunset at Tenaya Lake", Yosemite National Park - Tioga Pass



"Early Snow and Fall Colors in Yosemite"



"Painterly Fall Aspens in Snow" Yosemite National Park


"Storm at Sunset over Mono Lake"

shniks

Hi John- the last three are excellent. I particularly like the third one (with the yellow leaves)... great job mah man...



Cheers,

chrisdg

Very nice! I was also in this area on that same weekend. That early snowstorm against the fall colors was magical...you captured it well.

dlplumer

These are all superb, but 2, 4, and 5 are fabulous

Dan

PS: can you explain the technique you used on the Aspens? Thanks

schmoo

Sunnyvalejohn wrote:

"Storm at Sunset over Mono Lake"

Yeeeow!! What a photo! Great drama, light and color. Excellent!

mariusp

The last photo is breathtaking! Congrats!

cj99si

Seriously that last one is amazing. I like the aspens in the snow as well. very nice!

Awais Yaqub

Beautiful 3rd and 5th are my favorites

ian408

I dig the storm over Mono Lake.

Sunnyvalejohn

Thanks for the great comments and feedback! I am working to try to process and finish my images sooner after my shoots. A month and a half isn't too bad!

For the Painterly Fall Aspens image, I hand held the camera with 1/4 second exposures rapid firing as I panned the camera up and up. I think this will take some practice - This was the only winner out of 60 images! You want to pan in the direction of your subject so that you can still capture a sense of what the image is about. I tried little side to side movement while panning up and down as well. Different shutter speeds should yield different results. William Neill has some fantastic images in this style.

I am excited with how the ""Storm over Mono Lake" turned out (and thanks for the encouragement on that!). One day I hope to see Mono Lake with a mirror like surface that so many people have captured. It is nice to create something totally different from a place many people have been.

I have some additional images on my smugmug gallery below. The various snow and aspens are already becoming holiday card gifts for folks!

http://www.jharrisonphoto.com/gallery/6332073_dXXuy

Thanks again!
John

stevesieren

Very nice shots
Very nice shots indeed John, I like the last three, especially the mono shot. The blur is cool too. I tried it once and it's pretty hard to do. I was unsuccessful.