February 26-28, 2009 -- Making Unfinished Business

I went to Yosemite with the hopes of photographing Horsetail Falls turning red at sunset. It’s an annual phenomenon that that potentially occurs every late February. The late Galen Rowell, my all time favorite color landscape photographer, made this famous with a photo in 1973. Ever since, the shutterbugs have been flocking to Yosemite to attempt their own renditions.

I made my first attempt on February 26 after a long drive from Reno to Yosemite Valley. The drive took a lot longer than I expected, forcing me to forego securing a campsite and drive straight to the El Capitan picnic area where views of the falls could be attained. I arrived an hour and a half before sunset. The parking lot was nearly completely full; photographers were everywhere. I usually feel somewhat uncomfortable working on a photograph while being surrounded by other photographers. It bothers me a little to think that someone right next to me is probably getting a similar photograph to mine. Today, though, I decided to be social. I immediately made friends with a couple from California that parked next to me. They were annual travelers to Horsetail Falls that had only twice seen it go red.

That evening, the light was nice about 30 minutes before the official sunset time. It looked promising. But, while about 40 photographers were anxiously aiming their cameras toward the small waterfall high above, rapid cloud formations shaped. The congested group of photographers groaned.

It was really funny actually; I struggled to keep from laughing. Every time I saw more clouds moving in, I would hear another photographer groan in displeasure. Sounds like, “awe, oh, no," and" you gotta be $&@#in me” were exclaimed. There were also Asian, European, and Latin American photographers groaning in foreign languages.

(Horsetail Falls, Attempt 1)

The next evening, the same thing happened, but I didn’t hear the groans. I stayed out of the cattle guard of the El Capitan picnic area and roamed around an adjacent area alone. The light was a little better than the night before, but again, the clouds nixed the fireworks on the falls.

(Horsetail Falls, Attempt 2)
    
Even though my main mission was a failure, I just decided to be cliché and chalk it up to experience. Good landscape photographers have to be willing to take a chance and be patient in order to get outstanding images. I guess it’s like fishing in that there are no guarantees. But hey, a day outside in a beautiful place like Yosemite is hard to beat. I was there and ready; the rest of it was out of my hands.
    
On a brighter note, I had decent couple days of photographing other subjects. I absolutely loved being around the Cathedral Beach picnic area early in the morning. There are many nice angles with numerous reflection opportunities of El Capitan and the Merced. Also, Mirror Lake makes a great destination in the late afternoon.
    
Sometimes, unfinished business is good business; it’s extremely likely that I will try this one again.


El Capitan y La Merced


Mirror Lake

Note: still working on the stitching. This one had a lot of potential but I was shooting way too tight and didn't leave myself any room for error. I've made a mental note to loosen up my framing the next time I try my developing panoramic stitching technique.

Upper Yosemite Falls and Valley

February 19, 2009 -- A Snowshoe Stitch

After the previously mentioned epiphany, I decided that I needed to learn some new techniques that became popular during my photography hiatus. This morning I set out to try “stitching.”
Stitching, for those of you that don’t know, is a way of using several photographs together to make one. Some people like to do it for an artistic effect and enjoy exposure differences and jagged edges. I, however, am mainly interested in the big panoramics that stitching can provide – the detail is unbelievable. I've had to give it a try ever since a friend told me that he was making gigantic tack sharp prints with this method.
The plan for this morning was to drive to the Tahoe Meadows area just off the Mount Rose Hwy Southwest of Reno, snowshoe about a mile to an interesting spot, and try to shoot something stitchable.
I’m a noob at snowshoeing, but starting the trek at dawn wasn’t very hard. Putting the shoes on in the dark was the most difficult part. It was a little cold, but I warmed up after starting to move toward my photographic location.
After about 45 minutes of snowshoeing, I set up my tripod and quickly realized my first problem of the day. The snow was deep and the tripod legs just went straight into it. In order for me to get the camera level, I had to shove the tripod legs a few feet into the snow, which put my camera at about knee level. I was on my belly or awkwardly squatting like a catcher during the majority of the shoot. I’m so glad nobody saw me.
Not exactly knowing how it was going to work, I ended up shooting about 300 pictures. I had a few problems, mainly with keeping the camera level. The best advice I received beforehand was to to try to keep 20% of the previous frame in the current frame while panning from left to right. This image, probably my best of the day, is made from 13 vertical images. I was encouraged to do the stitching in Photoshop by hand, but didn’t have that much time. Instead, I just used some software that puts everything together automatically. All I had to do was the regular stuff that has to be done to all raw images in Photoshop. I did have some jagged lines and crooked borders, but I just cropped it all out to make this rectangular panoramic. 


13 Vertical Stitch, Lake Tahoe Meadows, Nevada (my snowshoe tracks are on the right)

January 27, 2009 -- Lake Tahoe and the Bonsai Rock

I tossed and turned all night until 5:00 in the morning when I decided to grab my camera gear and head over to Lake Tahoe. I had been wanting to photograph a boulder with a little pine tree growing out called “Bonsai Rock” that I’d seen in a book. I knew it was somewhere south of Sand Harbor and had unsuccessfully tried to find it on 3 previous occasions.

For my first attempt, I parked on the side of Nevada Hwy 28 about a half mile south of Sand Harbor and followed animal tracks through the snow to the lake. There were many boulders, but it was not the right place. I went back up to the road and drove another quarter mile south in order to make another attempt – once again, it was wrong. I then decided to drive over to the ranger station at Sand Harbor to ask someone if they knew where it was. The ranger told me he had heard of it, but did not know the exact location. The east side of the lake was still in shadow; I became determined to find it before the sun climbed over the mountains behind me. My only goal for the day was to find this rock. I decided to go another quarter mile past my previous failed attempt to make another go at it. Once I made it down the steep hill to the shoreline, wallah…I found the Bonsai Rock! It was still in shadow and I was beaming in joy. I waited about 20 minutes for the light that I wanted to peak over the mountains behind me. While nothing terribly dramatic occurred, the whole experience was an epiphany.

I felt unbelievable happiness while photographing the scene. I thought about how not too far in my past, I believed I would never again be doing this thing that I love so much. I wrecked my back in October of 2005, and for about 18 months, the only thing I photographed was my lousy health insurance card. Now, I’m ready to get back into it. I realize that photography has defined a large majority of my adult life. Without it, I wouldn’t be who or where I am today. I live in Reno, Nevada now, which provides me a terrific new geographic location that is ideal for year round photography. Every season has something to offer, and I’m going to take full advantage of it. It keeps me happy, healthy, and motivated. My Sweet Blahg is an attempt to document my progression back into the world of nature photography. I hope you enjoy!

Bonsai Rock & Boulders, Lake Tahoe, Nevada


Bonsai Rock & Boulders (wide), Lake Tahoe, Nevada