Monday, August 26, 2013

Lower Yosemite Fall - Yosemite National Park (Part 13)

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 viewing 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: FacebookTwitter, 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:
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Now let's introduce you to the photos for today. The photos for today was from the 2nd day of my trip. As I have stated in the previous post, after those Cook's Meadow photos, it was getting late, so I rushed over to the trail leading to Lower Yosemite Fall. Due to the lateness and the high contrasts during that time of the day, there are quite some highlight blow outs in the photos. I also have a night shot for this blog post. I hope you enjoy.

HDR composition of a close up of the bark of a Red Fir (Abies magnifica). Took this photo near the trail head leading up to Lower Yosemite Fall.

I thought the tree bark pattern would make a great black and white, so I processed the same HDR in black and white. 

Since it was late, there was not as much light out. I managed to do a long exposure without any filters. Since the blurs on the waterfall was similar, I managed to successfully do an HDR composition. 

A regular long exposure shot of Lower Yosemite Fall. 

I thought the same photo made a great black and white so here is a black and white process of the shot. 

The river Yosemite Falls creates. I shot this on the bridge above the river.

Same photo processed in black and white.  

View of mountains from the view point of Lower Yosemite Fall. As you can see there is a really strong color cast due to the time of the day this was taken at. I tried my best to remove the color cast. 

I ended up also doing a black and white process to remove all color cast on the image. 

A long exposure on the bridge facing Lower Yosemite Fall. As you can see there were a few other photographers and tourists on the left. While I usually don't like tourists in my photos, one of them was a savior. He happened to be wearing a white hat, which I was able to white balance off of. :) Remember that color cast from the time of the day I shot this at?

Another long exposure of Lower Yosemite fall from the bridge. Another photographer was also doing a long exposure on the left. I did my best to color balance this one, but the cast was just too much to fix. 

By the time I headed down from Yosemite Falls, it was pitch dark. I always bring flashlights in my camera bag. Never know when you'll need it. I actually did 2 long exposures on the way down, but the other one didn't turn out very well (severely underexposed). This was the one that turned out well. I shot this outside of the bathroom at the trail head (because my dad needed to go). 

Thought a black and white process would be pretty nice too. 

These are all the photos for today and from my 2nd day. I hope you have enjoyed viewing them. Next time I will have photos from the 3rd day of my trip from Swinging Bridge in Yosemite National Park. 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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Saturday, August 24, 2013

Cook's Meadow/Sentinel Bridge - Yosemite National Park (Part 12)

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: FacebookTwitter, 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:
Next Post >>
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Now let's introduce you to the photos for today. The photos for today was from the 2nd day of my trip. I have more photos from Cook's Meadow and on or near the Sentinel Bridge. I have black and whites, HDR compositions, regular landscape shots, and some close ups for today.

Anyone know the species of mushroom this is? I tried to identify it but I can't. If you know, please comment below.

 A closer photo of the mushroom. I found this mushroom near the Sentinel Bridge. I decided to get down to the shore of the Merced River (toward the Half Dome direction). I saw this giant mushroom on a fallen tree and decided to get a photo of it. I looks pretty interesting in my opinion. 
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 44 37 N 119 35 22 W

After a while, I decided to head back to the car to wait for my dad. Our car was at the parking lot near the Sentinel Bridge. This was a sign talking about Yosemite Falls.

After waiting for a while and have no clue where he went, I decided to get a few photos of Yosemite Falls which was across Cook's Meadow, from the parking lot. 
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 37 44 39 N 119 35 24 W

A zoomed in shot of Yosemite Falls at the same position.  

 Another photo from the same position of Yosemite Falls and Cook's Meadow. 

HDR composition of Half Dome and North Dome (left) near Northside Drive in Cook's Meadow. After my dad came back, we drove toward the trail up to Lower Yosemite Fall. I saw a cloud floating over Half Dome and decided to pull over at my favorite place to photograph Half Dome. I found (over the course of several trips) at this position, the rule of thirds worked the best when your focal length was between 35-50mm. I shot this photo at 35mm. 
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 38 57 30 N 120 30 25 W

The same photo as above processed in black and white to bring out the details of the clouds better.  

Walked deeper into Cook's Meadow and took another HDR composition of Half Dome and North Dome (left). 
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 38 55 58 N 120 29 22 W 

The pond in Cook's Meadow made a really nice reflection. I decided to line up the reflection and do another HDR composition. 
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 38 54 38 N 120 29 55 W 

These are all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed them. After my photos in Cook's Meadow, it was getting late so I rushed to Lower Yosemite Falls. This means... Next time I will have photos from Lower Yosemite Fall and my hike up to Lower Yosemite Fall. 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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