March 2018 Adventure - Part 2 - A Morning in Yosemite

The following morning started nice and early and there was barely a stir in the campground as we were rolling out, hot breakfast in our stomachs and coffee cups in hand.

Unfortunately, the best laid plans of mice and men . . . . As we drove by Leidig Meadow it was obvious that the bonfire we had seen the afternoon before had been burning all night, and since a low pressure had moved in, the meadow was full of smoke (it was too dense to be faked as a “mist”).  We had to scratch our plans.

As we continued down and around the valley, we decided to try our hand at the chaos of trees we kept asking ourselves about. We might as well try!?!  So we pulled over at Bridal Veil Meadow to try our hand first at the meadow, and then back with the chaos.

The meadow itself has a lot of interesting trees, but in-between the downfall and the remnant snowmen, it was hard to get a good composition that wasn’t full of visual distractions.  Plus the light left a lot to be desired.  But El Capitan is El Capitan and I just couldn’t resist.

I made several compositions in the meadow, but none of them seemed to work out.  Even as open as the meadow was, I still had a hard time getting visual separation between the trees.  I eventually made it to the far side of the meadow wound up on the bank of the Merced again.  There, I was able to find an area that jut out just a bit and make yet another image of El Capitan as the sun tried its best to break through the clouds.

Ann and I eventually wandered back into the chaos.  I think Ann did a much better job than I did with her image making - there were a lot of very interesting trees, but none of my images really turned out.  This image though, shows you what we were working with (or should I say, up against?).

But you know me.  When I start to get frustrated it’s time to change the tune and think compositions.  I guessed that the burnt-out tree to the left would have something for me in its curved trunk and I was right!

After a couple of hours in the field we were ready for a bit of a break and a new location.  So we drove back past the camping area to take the trail that heads to Tenaya Creek and Mirror Lake.  

Fortunately/unfortunately, we didn’t make it far.  I’ve often said that the best photography days are the ones when you don’t make it to your planned destination. (Implying that you’ve found so much great stuff to photograph on the way, you never get to where you’d planned!)  We moved off the paved walkway to take the dirt trail and quickly found ourselves a fascinating area full of boulders that occupied a good couple of hours of our time!

As Ann started walking up the path into the boulders, she said, “I could spend all day in here!”  She was right.  She quickly found a tree to focus on, so I headed in a different direction, and I found a tree and a boulder. 

I decided to work the location further after making this image and as I tried to climb up the boulder I did my best imitation of the Coyote I laughed at the previous morning.  While I saved my face, I didn’t save my elbow, my shin or my camera.  Thank Fuji for building a robust camera and lens.  I can attest they’re robust because the outer edge of the lens has giant gouges from the granite, one of which pinched the filter threads.  I'll have to manually hold any filters until I get it fixed.  It could have been worse I guess, I could have cracked the glass.  The camera and lens continued to function as designed; me a bit less so.  I felt like I’d been in a car accident - shaken and very, very sore.

But that didn’t stop me (no one ever said I was the brightest bulb on the block).  After working the kinks out a bit, and with Ann continuing her work on the area she had selected, I climbed onto the rock to make another photograph (it wasn’t worth the fall).  I then wandered around to find a more intimate landscape.  Which of course involved climbing around on more rocks, except this time they were snow-covered.  (Ok, maybe my bulb is a black light?)

In an area the size of a small bedroom, I made a handful of photographs.  Take a good look at this one:

Well, the next image was made with my shoulder buried into the root ball in the above image, with the camera pointing to the right, and my legs knee-deep in snow.  I really wish Ann had come around to make a photograph of me.  It would have been a suitable shooting the shooter image.

And as that area around the rocks was wont to do, I nearly broke a leg trying to make my way out of there!  

I tracked down Ann, who had moved locations and I saw a nice pair of trees off to her left that captured the lovely overhead light, so I set up for one of the last images of the day.

We photographed a bit more, and just made it to Tenaya Creek when it was time to turn around to head home.  Yeah, we’re definitely doing this hike again next time - all the way up the creek to Mirror Lake and then some!

The drive out of Yosemite was beautiful.  We took the northern way out so we got to drive through snow covered hills again.  We stopped for the day at a reasonable hour, to complete the remainder of the drive on Sunday.

As nice as this weekend was, it reminded Ann and me of how great it is to spend multiple days at a location instead of having to shoot and run.  Much of what we do is waiting for the right conditions, or returning to particular locations when the conditions are right.  Thus our planning for long weekends in one location, or even better, our really long trips with a flexible itinerary - it suits the way we work.

Still, if you only have a day and a half to be somewhere, it’s tough to beat Yosemite.  Even if you do miss the snow storm!