A November in Yosemite NP
Standing at Tunnel View in Yosemite National Park can be an intimidating experience. One is reminded not only of all the great photographers who have come before, from Ansel Adams to Galen Rowell, Frans Lanting, Art Wolfe or John Shaw, but also of the contemporary ones making a name for themselves. Many of these greats spent a significant amount of their lives exploring and photographing, becoming intimately familiar with the nuances and moods of Yosemite. There are so many fine images produced by these masters, one wonders how an image today is going to top those who have come before, particularly on a short 5 day visit. One can only hope that dedication, art-craft and unusual weather will give us just enough of an edge.Just as impressive was Andy, the youngish gentleman from German standing next to me from Germany. Andy and his wife (sleeping in the car) have already been in Yosemite for a couple of weeks, will spend three weeks here and they visit every year for three to four weeks, hiking, exploring and photographing every inch of the valley. His present favorite spot in the valley is the Diving Board. Then there are the 4 plus million people who visited Yosemite last year and about 3.8 million annually. Just about everyone of those visitors carry a camera of some kind, from the small proportion of professions and semiprofessionals to average shooter who happens to have a digital camera or cellphone. One has to take what natures gives you for those days visiting this wonderful place and then do the best job with the equipment one came with.Fortunately for the three of us visiting this November in Yosemite had rather diverse weather which allowed for a variety of fall to winter shooting conditions. Like David Muench, I find visiting these types of places in the shoulder seasons a value because they will give one a diversity of options. So, when arriving we had nice sunny weather that turned into clouds, snow, sun, clouds, snow and more clouds. All told, in our 5 days we had as good a set of different climatic conditions as one could have hoped for.Probably my favorite of this, my second trip to Yosemite is the image above of El Capitan illuminated by the red glow of the setting sun and reflected in the Merced river. There are a lot of contemporary shooters who would bring out the trees and shrubbery into a HDR stylized image, but I prefer this image dark empathizing the two important elements; El Cap and its glow in the Merced. The next morning brought an light frost for the leaves in the various meadows and then a chance to capture some of the big leaf maple leaves along the Merced.
That evening a winter storm rolled into California bringing winds, rain, cold weather and for us, about five inches of wet snow. Enough snow to make wonder shooting before the sun burned it all off. I am sorry, this was only my second time to Yosemite and for me, taking a picture of El Capitan from Valley View that morning was a must.
As I said the snow was quickly gone, but the soon clouded up again and stayed that way through the next day, but gradually clearing before the next storm was due to roll through. Having clouds gave us an opportunity to roam the valley looking for various opportunities, like autumn leaves on snow.
As mentioned, the final night saw another snow storm. With this one, it stayed warmer, around 34 to 36. Having to leave anyway, we stayed at Tunnel View for the changing conditions and were able to capture a bunch of very interesting scenes of the valley. I chose this one as my final presentation of this trip, but one can find a couple more at this web site.