Rancheria Falls Pics

Took a leisurely trip to/from Rancheria Falls from April 21-23. Some pics below, with many more here.

Almost dark:


Flowers definitely starting to bloom:


Cool cascades:


Some fall or other:


Campfire+stars:


Flowers on the way to Tiltill Valley:


Beginners 4am attempt at star trails:


Careful out there:


Lots of great rainbow action:

Awesome!

Glad I'm not a Newt

Been meaning to post this for you... Take a look at what happened to Wapama after the rain last week:


You hit it at a very nice time. Really really good flow...

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Nice. I'm bound to get lucky with the conditions occasionally!

Thanks.

Just to let you know... that is a Garter Snake. Non-poisonous.

The cascade is Rancheria Cascade. Very nice.
Rancheria Falls is further upstream.

Waterfall there is Tueuelala (the one with the rainbow).

If I state something you know already... my apologies.

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Wow! Excellent photographs, thanks for posting them!

Just curious, what camera did you use to capture the evening and nighttime shots of the stars. (BTW, you did a great job on your star trails photo.)

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Thanks. I used a Pentax K5 w/ 35mm f/2.8 lens. I would have preferred something wider, but that's all I had with me!

Very nice. Re: star trails. Did you take a series of photos and stack them, or is that just one long exposure ? Hint...get the north star in the photo (but not in the center) for a more dramatic effect.

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The Other Tom
Very nice. Re: star trails. Did you take a series of photos and stack them, or is that just one long exposure ? Hint...get the north star in the photo (but not in the center) for a more dramatic effect.

The trail is a stack of ~50 10sec images. Probably should have had a little less exposure to get fewer stars, as I think it's a too many in this image. I was aiming for the North start, but at 4am, while still half in my tent and using my hat on the ground as a tripod, my options were limited

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vitaminC

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The Other Tom
Very nice. Re: star trails. Did you take a series of photos and stack them, or is that just one long exposure ? Hint...get the north star in the photo (but not in the center) for a more dramatic effect.

The trail is a stack of ~50 10sec images. Probably should have had a little less exposure to get fewer stars, as I think it's a too many in this image. I was aiming for the North start, but at 4am, while still half in my tent and using my hat on the ground as a tripod, my options were limited

Thanks for the update. Yeah, those hat tripods make things a little tricky..........
Good idea about using a shorter exposure, I'll have to try that next time around.

vitaminC,

I noticed the first nighttime shot picked up a meteor in the upper right corner. You planned that, right?

Actually, yes! The Lyrids shower was supposed to peak that weekend, so I tried to aim in that general direction. Not sure if I succeeded or it was just coincidence I think I have some other images that have multiple meteors.

http://meteorshowersonline.com/lyrids.html

VitC,

I just now paid attention to the dates of your trip and noticed that my brother, nephew, and I were coming out while you were going in. We probably passed on the trail. We were a group of three, 6'4", 6'6", and 6'10". The nephew is 6'10".

Quite hot that day and we went through a lot of water causing a refill at the falls.

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Old Dude

Old Dude,
http://yosemitenews.info/forum/read.php?3,52782,53276#msg-53276

I'm guessing he just didn't want to say hello to you.

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I'm pretty sure we would have noticed and remembered that crowd! There were five of us, three guys and two gals- none over 5'11

We arrived Fri night and got a very late start Sat morning, so it's quite possible that our paths did not cross.

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vitaminC
I'm pretty sure we would have noticed and remembered that crowd! There were five of us, three guys and two gals- none over 5'11

We arrived Fri night and got a very late start Sat morning, so it's quite possible that our paths did not cross.

We did pass but my nephew had gone ahead so we weren't a group of three then. You left the falls at around 11:15 and we three met up there about 11:30. It was a hot day but I'll tell you that it gets a LOT hotter on that trail.

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Old Dude

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mrcondron

We were a group of three, 6'4", 6'6", and 6'10". The nephew is 6'10"

I think you ought to change your moniker from Old Dude to Big Old Dude!

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Nice pics! I love the pics with the stars. Any hints on capturing such photos at night?

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nyberg_d
Nice pics! I love the pics with the stars. Any hints on capturing such photos at night?

Trial and error is pretty much how I did it! There is some useful reading out there on the internet... like this.