Re: Photo shoot

i was thinking of going to the Valley Floor on Saturday to take photos... i wanted to wait for a new snow storm to hit, so i could get photos of fresh (untouched) snow (no foot prints etc). it appears that this Saturday will be good for that?

There may be so much precip that your shots will be limited in depth. 100% chance of rain and snow on the valley floor all day Saturday. I don't know which way you are coming into the park but I would recommend 140 as it doesn't get up to 5K-6K feet. Snow may close Wawona Road and Big Oak Flat Road for a bit over the weekend.

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?hourly=1&query=95389&yday=87&weekday=Sunday

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Old Dude

Sheesh, this time of year, you could bet on the fresh stuff if you went immediately AFTER the storm. I did that last year-- especially if the day after is during the week -- and I had the place to myself AND I did not have to risk life and limb driving in the snow on winding roads.

I really need to get up there in the winter more often. Have fun

well, i ended up going yesterday (Friday). i was really surprised at how many downed trees there were, never saw that many in years past.

here are a few photos i took:

http://forresthickman.com/2-5-10.html

Great photos, Forrest. Thank you.

Thank You.... it was really cloudy... i had to wait a while for the clouds to move just to get a picture of the waterfalls. the campsites were pretty empty, a Ranger said it was easy pickin's to get a campsite right now (Upper Pines).

the floor was pretty empty really, not a whole lotta people there. ... i went up Hwy 140 just so i wouldn't have to worry about chaining up on Hwy 120... i timed it, and i really don't see any time difference going either way from where i live (Manteca, Ca.).

the photos make it look cold there, but i never even wore a jacket during the day, it was actually very pleasant.

Thanks so much for posting all of the BEAUTIFUL pictures. I've been going crazy with the web cams down - so that helped a lot! Can't imagine what it's like there right now!

Wow, what amazing photos!

More!

How high is the Merced right now?

Quote
Anvanho
How high is the Merced right now?

It's averaging about 180 CFS at Pohono Bridge:

http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/plotReal?staid=POH

The Merced at the Pohono Bridge is running about 180CFS as eeek said.
Peak daily average flow last year was about 4400CFS. That's lots o' water.
The flood in 97 it was 10,100CFS at Happy Isle on Jan 2. It had to be a lot higher than that at Pohono Bridge due to all the other water sources running into the valley so lets say 15,000CFS (actually probably higher) at Pohono in 1997. That's nearly 100 times what is flowing right now.

Updated info:
The largest floods occurred in 1937, 1950, 1955, and 1997 and were in the range of 22,000 to 25,000 cubic feet per second, as measured at the Pohono Bridge gauging station in Yosemite Valley.

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Old Dude



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/2010 01:51PM by mrcondron.

Quote
mrcondron
The Merced at the Pohono Bridge is running about 180CFS as eeek said.
Peak daily average flow last year was about 4400CFS. That's lots o' water.
The flood in 97 it was 10,100CFS at Happy Isle on Jan 2. It had to be a lot higher than that at Pohono Bridge due to all the other water sources running into the valley so lets say 15,000CFS (actually probably higher) at Pohono in 1997. That's nearly 100 times what is flowing right now.

Updated info:
The largest floods occurred in 1937, 1950, 1955, and 1997 and were in the range of 22,000 to 25,000 cubic feet per second, as measured at the Pohono Bridge gauging station in Yosemite Valley.

On the other end, the dry intervals leave the Merced with flows in the teens. It is hard to find natural events that have a range of expression that covers 3 orders of magnitude.

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

I need a professional camera. My 8 megapixal sony point and shoot, never looks that good. Thanks for sharing the photos, they are awesome

My Nikon D40 only has 6 pixels, so it isn't so much how many pixels your camera has (unless you plan on blowing the photo up really really big), but it does help with detail.

for me, having better quality lenses is just as important (something you don't get with a pocket, point and shoot camera) . my son has a Nikon D3 (which is top of the line for Nikon), and when i use his more expensive lens on my camera, my photos come out even better than what i carry.

i do get frustrated though, as i wish i could afford a better camera. the D40 is a great beginner camera that can produce great photos if you know what you are doing, but i want to be able to produce very large photos (which require a much better camera). i can go as far as an 8X10 photo without suffering loss of any real noticible quality.

I am blown away by them. On my backpacking trip last year, i took what i thought were the most beautiful photos in the world, only when i got home they weren't as impressive. My point and shoot just doesn't hack it. I eventually want a camera that stuns, but with a 5 year old, 3 year old, and 1 year old, my budget too is a little tight.

I love that second picture. You're dead on about the lens being what matters (mostly).