Photos in National Parks
This post will wrap up my photography in Yosemite National Park, shooting the sunset golden hour at Yosemite Valley along the Merced River.
I shot as the shadows creeped upward on the rock formations, pushing away the golden sunset light, so there are subtle differences between some of these images.
The final image is near the very end of golden sunset hour, looking up river.
This wraps up my time in Yosemite. Until next time,
Ken
While waiting for sunset golden hour at the edge of the Merced River at Yosemite Valley, I continued to make a few iPhone images of the scene in front of me, experimenting with compositional variations.
When the scenery is so marvelous, it is difficult to be satisfied with just a few image variations.
Bridal Veil Falls is visible in the distance across the river from this location and is seen in many of my compositions here, but usually as a small part of the image. I zoomed in to get this shot.
Looking ahead to the next post with these last two images, after shooting the golden hour with my DSLR, I made a few images with my iPhone as the golden hour ended.
Stay tuned for my final shoot in Yosemite,
Ken
For my final evening shoot in Yosemite, I decided to check out locations in the valley, finally choosing the Yosemite Valley View Point.
I arrived early to be sure I could find a place to park in the small pull out and walked around the area with my iPhone scouting shooting locations before I retrieved my tripod and DSLR from my vehicle.
I also experimented with test compositions, using my iPhone camera to do so.
I finally picked a place at the very edge of the Merced River at the parking lot. I would have like to have shot from farther done the river, but there were people sitting where they would be in most of my shots and lots of visitors wandering around that area, too. So I figured shooting across the river and back up the river from the parking lot area would avoid most such disturbances.
I set my tripod legs on rocks in the edge of the river and I had a rock to sit on while I waited for golden hour. While I waited, I made more images with my iPhone and a few test compositions with my DSLR.
More later,
Ken
After my early morning photography, my wife and I returned to the park to drive to Glacier Point. It is a long drive, but well worth the time, as the views from the stops along this route are spectacular.
I shot with both my iPhone and my DSLR with 24-70mm lens and 80-400mm lens with an extension tube. It was not optimal time for the best light for landscape photography, but this was the only opportunity I would have to be here for the foreseeable future, so I captured many images while I could do so.
Sub Dome blends into the background in some of these shots, but it is just above and to the left of the two waterfalls, which might appear small in these images, but those are quite large.
Sub Dome towers above Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls.
The bridge over the stream feeding Nevada falls and the many people around the top of the falls only became apparent upon using the 80-400mm lens.
There were some people standing near the top of Vernal Falls in this image, but I removed them in Lightroom. I think there may be other people in the far background, but I did not attempt removing those small, fuzzy objects.
These images are representative of the views from Glacier Point and Washburn Point overlooks.
Thanks for following,
Ken
After a sunrise shoot at Tunnel View, I stopped at the parking area for Bridal Veil Falls. The falls can be seen from the parking lot and there is a short trail that gets one much nearer the falls. The trail is easy, but is slightly uphill most of the way, so it does take a little effort to hike.
I switched back to my 24-70mm lens before hiking the trail, but soon realized that the 80-400mm lens would have allowed me to capture close up images of details in the tall, slender waterfall.
The image above gives an idea of how far away the end of the trail viewing area is from the falls. This view covers the entirety of the falls from top to the bottom most part that I could see, including small portions in the bottom left, but excluding the sky to avoid exposure difficulties. I could have gotten a little closer, as a few people do, by climbing beyond the viewing area border, but I elected not to do so. One can easily see how a big lens would be useful for isolating smaller portions of this waterfall.
This long, slender waterfall does not fall straight down, but swings back and forth across the rock face. Maybe with a heavier water flow it might fall in a more linear fashion, but this meandering path creates more interesting features and that “veil” appearance.
This wider angle view gives a better indication of the local environment.
If I had brought my big lens, I would have zoomed into features such as the ledge in the bottom portion of the image above.
Some of the close up look images are extracted from wider angle ones by cropping the images, which I’m sure readers have realized.
That’s more than enough for now. Thanks for following,
Ken
After spending a few days in San Jose, California where we enjoyed their annual Jazz Festival and visiting with our son and daughter in law, we traveled to Yosemite NP, staying in lodging just outside the park.
Getting into the park during peak hours of the peak season requires a permit. Fortunately, I was able to secure a permit good for three days, so we were able to drive into the park during the daily peak visiting hours and when going into the park for sunrise or sunset photos, I entered before or after peak hours, so I did not have to wait in line or stop at the entrance station.
Our lodging was not far from Tunnel View, which I had been informed was one of the best locations for photography, so I chose that site as my first sunset shoot. Even though we had driven around main portions of the park, after checking into our lodging, I had not scouted Tunnel View. So I really had no idea what to expect at that location.
As I was driving the route to Tunnel View, I noted that the big rock features along my route were getting some really good late day light, which made me think this would be a good photography outing and I was noting other possible locations for shooting at sunset.
There are two parking areas at Tunnel View, where there were many people, but I had no problem finding a place to park at this late hour of the day. After looking around, it appeared the best place from which to shoot was atop the stone wall bordering the parking lot in which I had chosen to pull into.
I made a number of iPhone images well before sunset and converted these to monochrome, since the color images were not all that interesting. The big feature on the left is El Capitan and in the distance, left of center, is Half Dome.
When golden hour arrived, it was obvious that due to the tall rocks behind me, most of the big rock features of Tunnel View would be in shade.
I cropped in more closely for Tunnel View 2, trying to emphasize more of the golden hour light that only appeared on the very tops a few features here.
The image above is a focus stack of several images shot with a 24-70mm lens.
There were clouds in the sky, which got some sunset color, but even that was not spectacular and faded quickly.
I waited and watched the clouds as the sunset progressed, hopping for at least some last minute spectacular colors, but that never happened.
This is a wonderful natural scene, but I came away disappointed in my photography experience today. Maybe I was not creative enough, or picked a poor place from which to shoot or maybe I was here at the wrong time, not in the best season, or I should have captured more images prior to golden hour. Whatever…, I do not think I captured this scene very well today.
Thanks for following,
Ken
My son and I made a trip into Death Valley from Lone Pine, thinking we might return for more serious photography, but the distance and the timing difficulty steered us away from that idea.
Yet it was good to see Badwater Basin with the shallow lake created by the recent heavy rains. It appears that this unusual event attracted others, too. there were lots of people, more than I had seen there in previous visits, in the park.
The road to Devil’s Golf Course was closed, requiring a long walk to see that feature.
Shallow water covers the salt that appears brown and the salt protruding above the water is white.
The salt is showing indications of forming geometrical patterns typical of this salt as it dries. The heavy rains have destroyed or muted such patterns.
We stopped a little short of the turn in the road, which goes by the traditional Devil’s Golf Course, but this rugged salt is what we would expect to see there. The rains have muted some of the sharp features that I recall from previous visits.
Back in Lone Pine, we had Pizza and Beer for dinner. This IPA seemed a fitting choice after our time in Death Valley.
Until next time,
Ken
On the final day of my visit to Badlands National Park, South Dakota, I drove to the Visitors’ Center, where I would usually stop early in a visit to such a place; but so far I had ignored the Visitors’ Center, perhaps because it had been so far from my base of activity in the park and it is a large park to explore.
Somewhat past the Visitors’ Center there is a parking lot and walkways that let one get a wide view of some of the Badland features.
Continuing past the Visitors’ Center there are other areas of this park that I had not yet seen on this trip. Although, I recall being in this area the first time I came here years ago. There are hiking trails, long and short, in this area. Now that my time here is ending, I’m wishing that I had come this way earlier and hiked some of these trails.
The image above was taken after hiking a short trail from a parking lot.
I had picked out a place from which to shoot at sunset today. Yet on the way to that destination, I saw the distant features that I had planned to shoot were visible from a view point. On a spur of the moment, I decided to change my plans and shoot from this viewing area. I hiked out onto some features down from the viewing area in an effort to get better vantage points.
I quickly realized that those distant features I had planned to shoot were too far away, but I did not think I had time now to revert to my original plans, so I stuck it out here and tried to make the best of shooting at this location.
The nearby feature quickly began to fall into shadow, even though the sun was still relatively high in the sky.
As I noted how the light changed and how those distant features were getting the best of the golden hour light, I realized how bad my spur of the moment decision to shoot here was. I would have been much closer to those distant features at my initially chosen location.
As the shadows began to quickly progress across the landscape, I began to retreat towards the parking lot. In that retreat, I noted that I could navigate around some of the nearby features to the east and get better views than from where I had been shooting.
The image above shows an area into which I could have hiked and gotten much better golden hour images, but it was too late now. Live and learn. If I’m here again, I will know how to get here and when to be here.
I shot this final image of the sunset sky with my iPhone as I was making my way back to the parking lot.
This wraps up my 2022 photography in Badlands National park. I will begin the multiple day journey home tomorrow morning.
Ken
This is a continuation of my sunrise shoot on day 5 of my time in Badlands National Park, South Dakota, September 2022.
As I was about to wrap up my morning shoot, I decided to experiment with compositional variations using the wide area of grass in the area where I had been shooting as a foreground with Badlands features in the background.
I changed my distance from the Badlands and modified the zoom to include more or less of the background and more or less of the foreground.
I like all of the images that I shot in this manner,
however, I think this final image, shot by going down a slope and shooting up at the background feature is the most dramatic. This gives the impression of a vast sea of grass with the Badlands emerging from the grassland.
Until next time,
Ken
I arose early on the last day I had to spend in Badlands National Park, once again driving that slow, washboarded gravel road from Interior to SD 240.
I went back to an area from which I had shot a couple of morning already, when the sky were cloudy. Today the early morning sky was mostly clear and I anticipated a good sunrise golden hour.
To be continued,
Ken
