Re: Great View of Half Dome to Clouds Rest

Last week we hiked to Indian Ridge planning to photograph Half Dome from there. In previous years we had continued to North Dome but didn't want to go that far this year. The climb back up from North Dome to Indian Ridge isn't much fun.

We arrived at Indian Ridge early so we decided to go up to Indian Rocks to see the natural arch. Before heading back down we noticed a ridge to the east and decided to hike over there since it looked easy and we had extra time. It only took 10 minutes to get over there. It looked like it could be a great view of Half Dome and Clouds Rest if we could find an open area. We walked down and found an open spot at the edge of the canyon with a terrific view of Half Dome and Clouds Rest framing the Clark Range. This is a perfectly face-on view of Half Dome, much easier to get to and higher than Basket Dome. No need to go back to Indian Ridge to photograph!

I'm sure others have been there but I don't remember seeing any other descriptions. It was a very easy 1/2 mile off trail hike from Indian Rocks. We saw no other people. This would be a good off trail hike for anyone looking to do a first one. It's very open and you can't get lost since you can see Indian Rocks from the ridge. The view is spectacular even by Yosemite standards.


Here are some pictures showing where we were and how to get there.

The yellow line in this Google Earth image shows the path from Indian Rocks to the view point. We walked through a little manzanita but no real bushwhacking.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x2iw6n4ilns2cjq/GoogleEarth1.jpg


This view taken from Mt. Watkins shows our location in the black rectangle.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5ed4z9mayh8q5vm/WestPan-50mm.jpg


This full resolution view of the image in the rectangle shows our photographic locations with the blue and red dots. I noted a dead and broken tree with the green arrow.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/prtpon4p9hvwqay/location.jpg


This is a wide angle panoramic taken from the blue dot. The dead and broken tree is noted with the green arrow. The red dot was where I took the previous picture from Mt. Watkins.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9pgin8kc6tjc3tj/24mmPan.jpg


Half Dome taken with a 300mm lens much reduced in size.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vjxl0rwv1wxvmh4/HalfDome-2-300mm.jpg


Full resolution view of people at Half Dome saddle. Cables are visible.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lt6duhdbg89txgq/HalfDomeSaddle.jpg


This is the best image I could pull out of a pan of the Clark Range under mediocre conditions.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/71be0v4rl9v3bok/ClarkRange.jpg


We hope to return on a day without thunderstorms.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/2014 07:26PM by Calaveras.

That's awesome! Thank you for taking the time to put all this information together. Love the photos.

This is a thread where some old dood should be chiming in... or Billy Joel.

Took my buddie down that-a-way earlier this year. (Late April)

It's all good baby. If it's a ridge... it's even butter... go all the way to Le Bas-cat from there too...



Have fun
n
Tanks for Sharon
(warez the 3D tho?)

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Quote
chick-on
Tanks for Sharon
(warez the 3D tho?)

As soon as I get my act together I'll upload some. I've got 3 from this spot, one of Taft Point and one of Yosemite Falls from the Pohono Trail. Maybe more if I look.

Should be soon.

This took much longer than I was expecting. I had issues with Dropbox messing up the 3D images and had to get an answer from their forum to get it fixed.


Upper Yosemite Falls - Extra Credit: View the 3 groups of foreground rocks in 3D, requires 3 different eye focusings.

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/o1iu8z6g26sstmn/UpperYosemiteFalls-ana.jpg


Taft Point

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/njwuapbmzikih8r/TaftPoint_ana.jpg


Images from our last trip

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/rd5xogplstit1q5/HalfDome-ana.jpg

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/j51jac3d2gsji3w/Between_CloudsRest_and_HalfDome-ana.jpg

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/290dcz9seu85k04/NearCloudsRest.jpg


Tressider Peak from Columbia Finger taken last year

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/xv4jt0gzn3u00rt/Tresidder-ana.jpg

Well an image from that position blown up would probably have some real interest on a climbing board where routes could be overlayed evenly. But there is a reason one will not see serious fine art images of Half Dome by landscape photographers taken from Mt. Watkins, Snow Creek, Basket Dome, or North Dome.

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=37.75477,-119.54601&z=14&t=T

That is because the aesthetic shape of Half Dome looks much better from further west providing a stronger profile of its sheer face. Otherwise the more flat orientation lacks 3-dimensional depth. And it arguably looks best at Ahwahnee Meadow from down lower where it isolates the impressive feature up in the sky much like El Capitan looks best from down at Bridalveil Meadow and not from anywhere on the valley rim. Half Dome's face does not get adequate light in winter or early spring but rather after May. But by late spring into summer, valley visitors with all their campfires and auto pollution plus the disgusting San Joaquin Valley air pollution with natural marine water vapor off the Pacific tends to muddy any good sunset color anywhere in the valley. Well except for rare summer days like after thunderstorm weather followed by clear air from the northwest..

Probably the best images of Half Dome, in my opinion, may be captured late April thru early May when the Northern Jetstream dives down with a cold front from the Gulf of Alaska with particularly cold systems for that late in the season. That can put snow down to the valley floor with good amounts of snow decorating all the ledges and top of Half Dome. Often these cold spring storms have following cold clear air that can leave crystal clear dry cold air all across Northern California. Despite the dry air, a deck of cirrus can form up high as the system has not fully moved east. Thus the ideal scenario would be for one of these storms to exit during a late April morning followed by clear air with cirrus above thus providing strong alpen glow on the Half Dome face.

Otherwise photographers that embrace post processing manipulation can simply take any shot during the common summer ho hum conditions down at Ahwahnee Meadow then jack color saturation and twist hues up like is status quo unfortunately today with so many.

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http://www.davidsenesac.com



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/2014 10:44AM by DavidSenesac.

Well that's one way to look at it. Personally I don't think there are any bad views of Half Dome and I don't defer to landscape photographers as to what sort of pictures I like. I've seen plenty of landscape photographers engaging in the saturation game, more is better, something I don't agree with. But there is a large market out there for highly saturated images.

There's a lot of post processing that can be done that doesn't involve jacking up the saturation or twisting the hues. Anyone doing that doesn't know what they're doing.

Few people have the luxury of being in Yosemite under optimum conditions. There are some fairly simple things that can be done with images taken under less than optimum conditions to restore at least some of what appears to be lost.

It was not the best day when we took our images, but being aware of conditions and taking images with post processing in mind can result in better images than conditions would suggest possible. Here is my 300mm Half Dome before any post processing:

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/npuftuw7tmvgrye/HalfDome-2-300mm-Unproc.jpg

Compare that to the image in my OP. There are only 3 things done to the processed image; 1) Adjust black end RGB Levels to remove the blue haze in front of Half Dome, 2) Apply a Curves adjustment to brighten the overall image and preserve the contrast, 3) Selectively desaturate the blue in the background mountains. I made sure in this image not to include anything in the foreground that would make removing the haze difficult.

You can be down on post processing if you want to be but then you have to be down on Ansel Adams too because he performed a large amount of post processing. He just did it in the dark room instead of on a computer.

Quote
Calaveras
Personally I don't think there are any bad views of Half Dome and I don't defer to landscape photographers as to what sort of pictures I like.

Exactly how I feel. What I want out of a picture I take is what it looked like when I was there. That is what I like.


Thanks for the 3D stuff. Just saw it. The Quarter Domes one is just awesome.

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Quote
DavidSenesac
But there is a reason one will not see serious fine art images of Half Dome by landscape photographers taken from Mt. Watkins, Snow Creek, Basket Dome, or North Dome. That is because the aesthetic shape of Half Dome looks much better from further west providing a stronger profile of its sheer face.

Yeah, looks like crap from Watkins...

Quote
DavidSenesac
Well an image from that position blown up would probably have some real interest on a climbing board where routes could be overlayed evenly. But there is a reason one will not see serious fine art images of Half Dome by landscape photographers taken from Mt. Watkins, Snow Creek, Basket Dome, or North Dome.

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=37.75477,-119.54601&z=14&t=T

That is because the aesthetic shape of Half Dome looks much better from further west providing a stronger profile of its sheer face. Otherwise the more flat orientation lacks 3-dimensional depth. And it arguably looks best at Ahwahnee Meadow from down lower where it isolates the impressive feature up in the sky much like El Capitan looks best from down at Bridalveil Meadow and not from anywhere on the valley rim. Half Dome's face does not get adequate light in winter or early spring but rather after May. But by late spring into summer, valley visitors with all their campfires and auto pollution plus the disgusting San Joaquin Valley air pollution with natural marine water vapor off the Pacific tends to muddy any good sunset color anywhere in the valley. Well except for rare summer days like after thunderstorm weather followed by clear air from the northwest..

Probably the best images of Half Dome, in my opinion, may be captured late April thru early May when the Northern Jetstream dives down with a cold front from the Gulf of Alaska with particularly cold systems for that late in the season. That can put snow down to the valley floor with good amounts of snow decorating all the ledges and top of Half Dome. Often these cold spring storms have following cold clear air that can leave crystal clear dry cold air all across Northern California. Despite the dry air, a deck of cirrus can form up high as the system has not fully moved east. Thus the ideal scenario would be for one of these storms to exit during a late April morning followed by clear air with cirrus above thus providing strong alpen glow on the Half Dome face.

Otherwise photographers that embrace post processing manipulation can simply take any shot during the common summer ho hum conditions down at Ahwahnee Meadow then jack color saturation and twist hues up like is status quo unfortunately today with so many.

LOL! No, not really. "Serious" fine art landscape shots of Half Dome can easily be taken from those places.

It just takes a bit of imagination, actually knowing what one is doing, and good conditions.

Love the shot! Print it and hang it where you can be proud of it!

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www.pbase.com/caesar77