Re: My Best Yosemite Photo Ever

I'm sure some of you here will be able to appreciate the challenges of pulling off some epic photography in a place like Yosemite. But I'm happy to report that after many years of trying, I finally got what I think is My Best Yosemite Photo Ever. I've posted the entire story and image on my blog, and hope that you'll be able to enjoy and appreciate everything it took to make this world-class photo.

http://www.enlightphoto.com/views/2015/04/01/best-yosemite-shot-ever.htm

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Gary Crabbe
Enlightened Images

"Nearness to Nature keeps the Spirit sensitive to impressions not commonly felt, and in touch with unseen powers." - Oyihesa; Santee Dakota indian, from his book, Soul of the Indian (1911)

That's beauty! I appreciate the subtle tones and colors. Hard work does pay off! Congrats.

Took me a while to figure out what the heck you were talking about.

Turns out I had a slight twist of irony after posting my entirely fictional account of shooting at Tunnel View as part of a group April Fools Day joke post, when exactly a week later I was really at Tunnel View, and surprise, surprise... guess what I got? One of my Best Yosemite Valley icon photos in the last bunch of years.

http://www.enlightphoto.com/views/2015/04/22/the-irony-of-my-last-post-my-best-yosemite-shot-ever.htm

I hope some of you will take a look and enjoy.

Cheers,

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Gary Crabbe
Enlightened Images

"Nearness to Nature keeps the Spirit sensitive to impressions not commonly felt, and in touch with unseen powers." - Oyihesa; Santee Dakota indian, from his book, Soul of the Indian (1911)

Indeed Gary, what an exceptional image, one of the best I've seen, am envious! The light off the broken clouds provided wonderful light for the ground fog below. None of the valley is in direct light that often plagues this kind of image with higher dynamic range to contend with. Snow nicely covers lots of the rock areas that otherwise would be dim. If it had really been a much larger snow event that made the whole scene white on all trees and rocks there probably would not have been the nice ground fog that is a result of thin snow depths vaporizing off rock then condensing above the ground.

Before that storm on Wednesday April 8 came through I was aware that it was probably going to be the only opportunity in 2015 for a chance for snow covering valley floor areas but given how storms in the Sierra had played out this droughty winter, didn't have enough confidence it would amount to much to bother taking a day off from work midweek. You might enjoy playing the below animation of that storm back.

http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/nsa/js_animate.html?year=2015&month=4&day=19&type=ruc_nonsnow_precip&region=Southwest

Also enjoyed reading your commentary that reflects my own thoughts on these kind of icon locations. Of course the key is to be there and ready when uncommon conditions have potential. If one does that enough, sooner or later it is by law of chance likely to offer rare opportunities that can stand out above the thousands, millions of other visitor's images.

David
http://www.davidsenesac.com/Spring_2015/spring_2015-1.html

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http://www.davidsenesac.com



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2015 09:35AM by DavidSenesac.

Thanks, David.

I appreciate the kind words. Yup, I knew this would be one of those only chances for awhile, and was lucky to have a break in my schedule. I met one guy in Cooks Meadow that morning that had hiked up the 4-mile trail the previous day right in the midst of the storm, hanging out for almost 5 hours at Glacier Pt waiting for a break in the clouds, which he said he was lucky enough to get. Not sure I'd want to be coming down the 4-mile covered in lots of fresh snow. The things people will do for a photo though... I'm sure you know what that is like.

Cheers,