Big Oak Flat Road & Yosemite Falls (Cellphone Photos) - Yosemite National Park

On 17 January 2023, my parents and I took a day trip to Yosemite National Park in California to see snow. We drove along Big Oak Flat Road, and visited Yosemite Valley. The photos are split into 2 blog posts. I hope you enjoy viewing my photos!

Parts: Cellphone Photos | Olympus Photos

These are the photos I took on my cellphone. The photos are from Big Oak Flat Road, State Route 120, and Lower Yosemite Fall trail.

The first thing to greet us are the snow covered trees on the sides of Big Oak Flat Road (State Route 120). 

A snowy scenery photo of snow covered trees, a snowy road, clouds, and forest. The photo is from Big Oak Flat Road (State Route 120).

A snowy scenery photo of snow covered trees, a snowy road, clouds, and forest. The photo is from Big Oak Flat Road (State Route 120).

A snowy scenery photo of snow covered trees, a snowy road, clouds, and forest. The photo is from Big Oak Flat Road (State Route 120).

Next we turned off State Route 120 onto the section of Big Oak Flat Road that leads to Yosemite Valley (your only option for a vehicle during winter). 😂 We were greeted by more snow covered trees. I think this is the most snow on trees I have ever seen in California.

A snowy scenery photo of snow covered trees, a snowy road, and forest. The photo is from Big Oak Flat Road.

A snowy scenery photo of snow covered trees, clouds, and forest. The photo is from Big Oak Flat Road.

Next we arrive in Yosemite Valley. After we parked at the Yosemite Valley Chapel, my dad and I walked through Cook's Meadow, and went straight for Lower Yosemite Fall Trail.

A snowy scenery photo of Yosemite Falls, snow covered trees, a snow covered trail, fog, clouds, and forest. The photo is from Lower Yosemite Fall Trail.

A snowy scenery photo of a creek, snow covered trees, clouds, and forest. The photo is from Lower Yosemite Fall Trail.

A few tourists before us said they saw 3 bears at Lower Yosemite Fall Footbridge, but my dad and I didn't see them. We did see bear tracks in the snow on the trail though.

A photo of bear tracks in the snow. The photo is from Lower Yosemite Fall Trail.

A photo of bear tracks in the snow. The photo is from Lower Yosemite Fall Trail.

This is all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing the photos! Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Parts: Cellphone Photos | Olympus Photos

Yosemite Cedar Lodge - Yosemite National Park (Part 3)

Yosemite National Park is a national park located in California that stretches eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in the central eastern portion of California and covers around 761,268 acres or 3,080.74 km² of land. Yosemite National Park is best known for its waterfalls, deep valleys, grand meadows, giant sequoias, giant wilderness area, and much more. I, personally, love Yosemite National Park. I think it is very beautiful and is a great place for photographs. I also happen to live in the SF Bay Area which isn't very far from it! I try to make at least 1 trip almost every year to the park. I visited the park several month ago and I am here to show you some of the photos I took in the park as well as some photos I took on the way into the park from the SF Bay Area. These photos will be divided over several blog posts. I hope you enjoy the photos! Also, I have route information recorded using a Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver. If you are planning a similar trip to Yosemite National Park and would like to see the route I took, feel free to email me at the email address I provided on my "About the Photographer" page for a copy. I can provide you the route information in Google Earth KMZ, Canon NMEA, and GPX formats. If you would like to get notifications when I do post, you can Like/Follow me on the following fan pages: Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. If you are interested, choose one of the links below:

• Yosemite 2013 (Best Photos)
• Yosemite 2013 (All Photos)

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Now let's introduce you to the photos for today. The destination for the 1st day of my trip was to get to Yosemite Cedar Lodge (the hotel I was staying at). When I got there it was kind of late, however, I still managed to get some shots near the hotel. The photos for today is from near Yosemite Cedar Lodge, a hotel near Yosemite National Park. While there, I took photos of the many bear statues set up around the hotel. The photos for today will include photos of the bear statues, some of the picnic areas set up around the hotel, and also a few night long exposures near the hotel.

I also would like to put up a review for the Yosemite Cedar Lodge here. First off, my parents did all the planning and the hotel reservations so I have no clue how much they paid for it. I however can tell you about my experience and I can say, you do save quite a bunch staying here than staying inside Yosemite (obviously), unless of course you are camping. The rooms were clean, and basic bathroom supplies (shampoo, soap, hair dryer, toilet paper) are supplied. I actually stayed at the hotel 2 nights and had a great time there. They also have a small restaurant at the hotel where you can eat at. Just one complaint is that the electrical outlets in the room are a bit old and loose. I have this outlet splitter (because hotels never have enough free electrical outlets for you to use) I use to charge up the batteries in all my electrical devices (not just camera). The splitter (which have no issues when used at home) was kind of falling out of the electrical outlets. I had to change outlets at least once, and had to do a "balancing act" trying not to get my outlet splitter to fall out. Would be nice if the owners replaced them with something newer and tighter! Considering how this hotel is out in the middle of the forest (or no where) I'd give this hotel a 5/5 my stay.

Bear statues set up around the hotel. 

Another bear statue. 

HDR composition of a tiny walkway near the Merced River right across the street from the hotel. Near the hotel there is only a tiny strip of walkway probably for hotel guests to hangout at. 

A short unpaved walkway right across the street from the hotel leads you down to the riverbank of the Merced River. As I mentioned, I arrived at the hotel pretty late in the day so the lighting was very harsh. this was the best I can do as I cannot do HDR as the river is constantly moving. 

Plants growing by the riverbank. A tree with some interesting root patterns and a rock on the right with lichens and moss growing over it. 

An HDR composition of another tree's roots. I thought the roots had a really nice pattern. I did HDR to try to get some of the shadow areas under the roots exposed. 

Rock with moss and lichens grown all over it. 

A flower tree growing across from the hotel. I did some research but didn't find anything. If you know what flower this is, please comment below. 

Another few bear statues. 

A photo of Yosemite Cedar Lodge. This was pretty late in the day with the sun setting. Since the exposure was quite long, the cars going by left streaks of light. Since it was not completely dark, the sky is blown out as usual. 

A few gazebos setup across the street from the hotel. What a great way to sit down and relax. 

Another bear statue. The hotel is right behind across the street. 

Another gazebo setup across the street from the hotel. 

It got dark out, decided to do a few long exposures of people driving by on SR-140. The hotel is right across the street. 

Another long exposure shot. 

Walked across SR-140 and did another long exposure facing the other direction. The reason I did this was because I noticed the stars were coming out. This photo was shot at f/9.

Another long exposure from the same spot with a wider aperture. As you can see the wider aperture allowed the more light into the camera, therefore more stars showed up. The trade off is, you now don't have the "crisp lines" of the stars at f/2.8. 

These are all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed them. Next time I will be posting photos from my drive into Yosemite National Park from Yosemite Cedar Lodge. Please don't forget to share my blog posts with your friends! If you would like to get notifications next time I post, you can "Like" me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

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Sun Bear/Siamang Island - Oakland Zoo in Oakland, CA (Part 2)

I know that I am posting these photos a little bit late, but here they are anyways. So last year (12/7/2012), my biology professor took the whole class on a field trip (as one of our labs) to the Oakland Zoo in Oakland, CA to teach us biology. While I was there, I took many photos of the animals and I am here to show you them. I have to say, I am not a big fan of zoos, but it sure is a great place for animal photos! If you love animal photos like me, definitely give your local zoo a visit. All of these photos were shot using my Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens on my Canon EOS 7D.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. If you are interested, please select a link from the following list:

• Wildlife in Captivity 2010-2012 (Best Photos)
• Oakland Zoo (Best Photos)
• Oakland Zoo (All Photos)

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 

Today, I just have photos of the Sun Bear (Helarctos malayanus) and the Siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus).

I think it is pretty obvious. This is the Sun Bear (Helarctos malayanus).

The Sun Bear (Helarctos malayanus) got up. I thought it was going to get food. Nope, it switched a place and went back to sleep. XD

This is a Siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus) sitting up high and looking at the entire zoo.

They sure have great balance!

I think it sees me. 

Here is an image of a Siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus) walking across a rope suspended high in the air. 

These are all the photos for today, I hope you have enjoyed viewing them. Next time I have photos of the White Handed Gibbon, a Chimpanzee, and Squirrel Monkeys. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 

A trip to Yellowstone/Grand Teton National Park (Part 24)

Hello! This is the pictures of my trip to Yellowstone/Grand Teton National Park. Not all pictures are of the inside of Yellowstone/Grand Teton National Park. I visited Idaho Falls, Mormon Church in Salt Lake City, and some other places along the way. :) So please enjoy!

你好！这就开始我的黄石公园照片了。不是每个照片是黄石公园的。我还去了很多路上的地方。请欣赏。

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I finally got my videos uploaded so here it is! :) Hope you enjoy viewing them. This is the last part. I have no  more content for Yellowstone as of right now.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best photos from this trip, use this link. To view all of the photos from my trip, use this link.

Sorry, the videos are no longer available.