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
Homeward bound from the Badlands National Park of South Dakota and traveling through Nebraska, I needed a place to pull over for lunch. Seeing a sign indicating a historical bridge loop, I was too slow to react to take the first exit to that loop, but I was able to take the second exit.
I pulled over just before a bridge at a small parking lot with this historical marker.
I made a sandwich, taking it with me as I walked onto the bridge. Soon another person joined me on the bridge. He informed me that the Niobrara River had no fish in it. I found that quite surprising, as it looked like a nice, but shallow river. His theory as to why there are no fish in this river is because the river water gets too hot for fish, since it is shallow and completely open to sunlight all day. My research indicates that there are fish in this river. However, I did not see any fish in the clear, shallow water at this location. So maybe the range of the fish is limited in the Niobrara River.
The river at this location, at this time, was quite shallow and one could easily walk across it.
This bridge has been bypassed by a newer bridge nearby, but the Bryan Bridge still seems to be in good condition and is open to traffic.
The water level was too low, at this time, to float that downed tree in the middle of the river; although, the fact that the fallen tree is in the middle of the river, indicates that the river level was higher and flowing rapidly to deposit the tree there.
The newer highway and railroad bridges are just downriver from the old Bryan Bridge.
In the river near the bridge are square blocks with round holes in their centers. Were these an original part of the bridge structure or were these dumped here for another reason?
Maybe there is a reader that can answer this question.
More later,
Ken
From Ridgway we traveled to Hotchkiss, Colorado, where we planned to visit the North Rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Years ago we had briefly visited the south rim, but this was the first visit to the North Rim. After checking into our motel, which was surprisingly nice for such a small town, we drove to the north rim.
It is a fairly long drive from Hotchkiss to the canyon, but I wanted to do a bit of scouting, prior to returning for late day or early morning photos. It was early afternoon and the sun was high in the sky. We stopped at a number of canyon overlooks, where I snapped iPhone scouting photos.
Since this is a deep canyon, direct sun light penetrates to the bottom for only a few minutes each day. The best time to photograph the canyon is probably not during the typically preferred golden hours of early morning and late day, so timing when to be here is a problem for those of us that are not highly knowledgeable of the lighting variation across the seasons here.
Much geology is revealed in the rocks of the canyon walls. One can find lots of information on the canyon’s geology via many online sources. Here is one link to check out, if interested, and another here.
The last photo in this post shows a feature referred to as “The Camel” (left of center and just above the vertical center).
My original intention was to return to the canyon with my DSLR either later today or the next morning, but given the travel time from our lodging and the uncertainty about the best time of day to be here, I decided more effort on this visit might not be adequately fruitful. Instead, we changed our travel plans and decided to move on towards home a day earlier than planned.
I know these iPhone photos are not very good, but these are all I have for this trip.
Ken
After departing Santa Fe, New Mexico we headed to Colorado, stopping for a couple of nights in Durango.
I had anticipated spending most of our time in downtown Durango, allowing my wife to shop to her hearts’ content; but she was not interested in shopping here.
Our motel was near the Animas River, with a walking/bicycle path along the river. We checked out that path, but discovered that it was not a great walk at this location, being completely open with no shade and it was warmer in the sunshine than we expected. There was a pedestrian bridge on this path with good views of the river and that was as far along this path as we ventured.
We drove a few miles into the downtown area, intending to have dinner at one of the many restaurants there, but we could find no available parking. After a number of circuits through downtown, we abandoned it and finally found a decent Mexican restaurant in a small shopping center off of the main roadway between our motel and downtown. We enjoyed our dinner at outdoor seating at that location and judging by the number of Hispanic customers, it appeared to be a popular restaurant with the locals.
There are numerous parks in Durango and long pleasant walking/biking paths along the Animas River, which we checked out the full day we had in the area.
I noted that the two youngest kids in the front of this raft were more interested in me than the river. It must have been the phone camera that I pointed at them.
There are modern art work pieces in the parks.
We drove around the local area to check out the countryside, driving up into a national forest and along numerous backroads. Along one of these roadways, I spotted a large rafter or flock of wild turkeys, maybe a couple of dozen.
On to Silverton next,
Ken
Continuing to drive farther along FSR 250, checking out the scenery and possible campsites, I pulled off the road, when I saw this view of a red top mountain.
I made a mental note of this location, hoping to return here again, when I had more time to shoot with my DSLR.
Shortly after taking this photo, I came to Stunner Campground at the intersection of FSR 250 and FSR 380. I was surprised to find that it was not only open, but free and no one else was there.
I pulled into the first campsite that just happened to be a level, pull through site that would be perfect for my son and DIL’s small camper trailer. This campsite came with a pair of hiking boots (image below). I then staked out the next campsite just a bit more down the loop for my vehicle.
Just up the hillside, on one side of my campsite, were tailings from an old mine or exploratory mine.
A few other campers began to arrive in the campground a little later with a few staying and a few driving on.
Since I had plenty of time before my son arrived, I did a lot of walking in and around the campground, scouting for potential photographic opportunities.
There were many large rocks and boulders scattered around the campground. The rocks usually had splotches of lichen growing on them in interesting patterns.
I worked my down towards the Alamosa River that ran beside the campground.
The photo above was taken from atop mine tailings, looking down towards the river and across to a mountainside. Notice that there are patches of good fall color, but most of the trees are still green or just showing signs of changing.
The beetle killed evergreen trees really spoil the scenery now all around the Rocky Mountains, but there are trees that either are resistant or maybe just not yet attacked by the beetles.
The soil in this area is mineral rich, resulting in an orange-red color in the water, staining the rocks and anything else in the water. The water is acidic from the naturally occurring minerals and the mine tailing contribute even more to the natural elements in the water.
There were numerous other indications of old mining operations around the campground and I even saw newish claim stakes in one location.
That little Aspen tree in the photo above really caught my eye, so I had to photograph it with a green evergreen tree as background. I tried other compositions and close up views, but this one is most pleasing to me.
When my son arrived, he said the fall color in this area was the best he had seen on his trip from the Denver area and that there was much smoke from forest fires visible during most of the drive. There seemed to be little, if any indication of smoke in this area.
We drove around a little after they arrived to decide where to go for a morning shoot the next day.
This is open range country, so there were cows wandering around the forest. A small herd of cattle moved into the campground during the night, sleeping in the open, grassy meadow of the campground.
The darker spots in the grass of the photo above are places where the frost did not form, because an animal was laying there during the night.
Much more on this trip to follow,
Ken
I went out just before sunrise to photograph along the Rio Grande in Thirty Mile Campground, getting wet by the early morning dew covered vegetation that I had to walk through to get to the river’s edge. It was a cool, but not really cold morning and it warmed up quickly, after the sun came up.
I found a spot with boulders along the river bank that looked favorable, so I began shooting prior to sunrise, making a few tentative exposures with longish shutter speeds in the still dim light.
Wanting an even longer exposure, I added a darker neutral density filter to my setup, getting a 30 second shutter speed to smooth the river current. The neutral density filter also increases the color saturation. I probably had a circular polarizer mounted, too; but I really do not recall for sure, since it has been a couple of months since I made these images.
Since I was in a valley, there was no golden hour light, as the sun had been up for a while before direct sun rays impinged upon the scene.
I think the image below may be the best one that I got during this morning’s shoot; although, I do like the earlier 30s shot, which has a more serene appearance, as compared to the more dynamic later photographs.
I favor the composition above, because it has more colorful vegetation, with wildflowers, along the river banks, prominent boulders, dynamic flow in the river current and those wonderful, early morning clouds in the sky and the river cutting diagonally across the image leading to the cloudy sky.
Having decided that there was not much variety to shoot at this location, I decided to move on to my next destination today, rather than trying to stay over another night here.
On my drive out of this area, I stopped along the river to shoot a few scenes, even though it was getting well into the morning with harsher light to deal with.
There were many ducks, adult and young ones, in the river. So I had to try to capture a few of those. Maybe I should have put on my 80-400mm lens to shoot the ducks, but I like to travel with the 24-70mm mounted on my camera, since it gives me more flexibility for wide to medium telephoto range landscape images.
My destination today is Teal Campground north of Pagosa Springs, Colorado.
More later,
Ken
An interim stopover on my journey from Ridgeway, Colorado to the southeastern corner of Colorado in July, 2020 was Thirty Mile Campground. It is a long, slow drive on rough county/forest service roads to the campground. This campground has sites that one can reserve and others that are on a first come first serve basis. There were only a few sites available, when I made my reservations prior to my trip to Colorado. I wanted to be sure that I had a place to stay at least one night, so reserving a site assured that I would not have to search for a free site in the forest. I thought I might be able to get one of the free sites, if I decided to stay a second night; but the campsites were all full or reserved on the day that I arrived and there were no reserve sites available for a second night. I would have to wait until the second day to find any available free sites, if I wanted to stay a second night.
Thirty Mile is a nice campground and my site was just inside the campground along the Rio Grande, where it was pleasant to hear the rushing water in the river. After checking into my campsite, I took a walk along the river to check out possible locations for photography late in the day and/or early in the morning.
The river is pretty, but there seemed to be limited possibilities for photographic variations along the river. This is a popular place for anglers and many of the people in the campground were there to fish for trout in the Rio Grande.
I watched a doe grazing on the opposite side of the river, shooting a number of photos and videos with my phone. The doe did not seem to care that I was watching it. One of the unedited videos can be seen here.
After my walk along the river, I drove along the road past the campground to check out the scenery along the Rio Grande Reservoir, which is a very long reservoir. The road beside the reservoir is mostly a narrow one lane road with periodic pullouts, where vehicles can pass each other. It was a rainy, overcast day, which created some photographic opportunities.
I drove almost to the very end of the reservoir before turning back. Near the end, the water shallowed, revealing the trace of the river going into the reservoir. In the upper end of the reservoir there was colorful vegetation and I got lucky when a break in the clouds allowed sunlight to highlight some of that vegetation.
During my drive back towards the campground, I stopped to shoot with my iPhone at a few locations.
There were a few scattered wildflowers and large colorful boulders, some covered with lichen, in various shapes between the roadway and the reservoir.
The next post will have DSLR photos taken along the river and along the reservoir.
Stay well and safe,
Ken
A few years ago after a week of business in a London office, I stayed over the weekend to photograph a few of the city scenes. London is a great city with much history, centuries old buildings and modern architecture. There are wonderful museums, which take much time to completely enjoy.
I had no firm plans for what to see, but my wife and I had spent a week+ here a few years prior, so I had enough of a conception of the area to just wander about and I was familiar with the subway system.
I was there just a few days after a major riot in one area of the city. So I knew an area to avoid, at least. The taxi driver that brought me from the airport to my hotel was quiet talkative and condemning of the rioting.
As usual in a large city, there were lots of local people and tourist out and about on Saturday. As I was photographing sights along the Thames, a couple of Japanese men stoped near me. The older one had a Nikon camera, one of the newest D series professional models, and a bulbous, wide-angle prime lens. I only had my consumer model Nikon D90. The older man did not speak English, speaking to me in Japanese, emphasizing his camera and lens, via his motions. The younger man, his son, translated for his dad. I was complementary about his camera gear, asking humorously, if he wanted to trade with me, offering to include my tripod, since he did not have one with him. Of course, he scoffed, in Japanese, at that notion. Anyway, I guess that I did not look like a typical tourist to the older man, with my photo vest and tripod, and I think that impression led him to speak to me. So if you want to attract attention while traveling, carry camera gear, not a just point and shoot or camera phone.
At one place along the Thames, where the river bank was very sandy, there were local artists creating sand sculptures with tip containers on prominent display. The observers showed their appreciation of the artists’ work by tossing coins at the tip containers. It looks like very few tossed coins hit the intended target, but one artist had a good idea with a blanket or tarp under the target to make it easier to find the coins that missed the target.
I wanted to get down to the Thames bank to walk along it, but I was concerned about the local tides. It appeared to be low tide now, but there were limited access points from the tidal wall along the bank and I did not want to get trapped by a rising tide.
At a quiet interval along the river walk, I found a young lady sitting on steps that went down to the river bank. I stopped to ask her about the local tides. She did not have any knowledge of the tide schedule, but she said her boyfriend probably knew, as she pointed out a young man walking along the bank. She also told me that her boyfriend did volunteer archaeological work along the river bank and had found an old cannon and numerous minor objects.
I went down to the bank and approached the young man, explaining why I was there. He did not know the tidal schedule, but he gave me a good reference that I could check online. I asked what he was looking for and he pulled a few small objects from his pocket that he had picked up there. The only one of those objects that I recall was a small button, that he said was from a sailors uniform. He also showed me a few other items along the bank, broken china and clay tobacco pipes cemented together in the river sediment. He said it was not uncommon to find an occasional Roman coin.
I thanked him for his information, decided to take a chance and continued walking along the bank. More aware of the treasures that might be lying around, I scanned the bank as I walked along, not finding anything, other than broken recent China dishes, probably discarded from a local restaurant or dwelling. As I came back this way, I looked for the clay pipes, thinking I should at least get a photo, but I could not find the pipes again.
Judging by the height of the walls along the river bank, the water level must get rather high at times.
As I walked along, the scattered clouds became more organized, threatening rain, so I abandoned the river bank and began to look for a temporary shelter as a light rain began. It was past normal lunch time and I need sustenance, so I found a restaurant to shelter in, hoping the rain would pass, as I enjoyed a meal.
After my late lunch, I continued exploring the local area along The Thames. Near the Tower Bridge, a young man told me of a place on the opposite side of the river where I could get a different view of the bridge. I walked across the bridge, following his directions, as well as I could remember them, finding a narrow passageway between buildings, going through an iron fence gate, that clanged shut behind me, into a large secluded plaza along the bank behind what appeared to be upscale apartments. I was alone there in the early evening, with only one young couple coming into the area and they did not linger long. Maybe I spooked them away. It was eerie being alone there in the dark and I had seen almost nobody along the streets I had taken to find this plaza. I could not help thinking this would be a good place for a mugging, dumping a body in the Thames, and I hastened away, perhaps not spending as much time as needed to get the best photo here.
I did not like the construction cranes and other industrial features that were more visible near the bridge from this vantage point, but I managed to get a muted night shot of the bridge from a different point of view than the normal tourist would see. I’m not happy with the exposure, which was difficult with this high contrast scene. The long red line in the lower right of the photo is London Bridge.
As I retreated from the plaza and approached the bridge, I stopped below it to get this shot:
I like this image of a portion of the bridge, since it is from a perspective not often photographed.
I continued across the bridge to the opposite bank and began my walk back to my hotel.
Stay safe and well,
Ken
