Postcard from Yosemite–Fern Springs

Fern Springs,  in the far west portion of Yosemite Valley, is often referred to as Yosemite’s smallest waterfall. As you can see, it is exactly that. The water comes from an underground spring and is fed into a small pond, then flows out of the pond and heads to the nearby Merced River.

It is a pure underground spring, meaning it is perfectly drinkable. Several time while photographing here, cars stopped to come over and fill their water jugs…as did I. The spring mountain water here is better than any water you buy in stores and just as healthy. I wish I would have brought more containers to fill before I headed home.

Getting to Fern Springs could not be easier. When you come into the valley either on Highway 120 or 140 (they join up), the two-way highway turns into a one-way road. At the split, the road crosses Pohono Bridge (more on that in a future blog) then makes a quick jog to left, then right. There, you will find Fern Spring just sitting there waiting for you, your camera, and your water containers.

As you might guess, this is an HDR enhanced photo. I used only 4 exposures to make this image instead of the usual 5. The last exposure was so blown out it wasn’t needed. I used a slow shutter speed to obtain the silky texture of the water. A few enhancements were added in Photoshop to complete the image. I must say I do like the way it turned out.

Back in February of this year, I wrote about Fern Springs and showed you a photo I took a couple of years ago in Autumn. At that times, the plethora of autumn leaves in the water were the dominant theme and the waterfalls were just a trickle. Not so in spring. All of Yosemite’s waterfalls are always changing.

Look for more HDR images from my Yosemite trip coming your way here soon.

Postcard from Yosemite–Half Dome in HDR

Here it is folks…my first photo from Yosemite, done using HDR (High Dynamic Range). To be honest, I wasn’t going to share this photo here…it was only a practice run and not one of my favorite images from my recent trip. But, right after making this very first image, my computer stopped working…just stopped dead in its tracks. I was without my computer for 24 hours.

Turns out the power supply died and I replaced it today.  Am back on line now, as you can see. But my blog is due out today, so I decided to share this first test image with you. It shows Half Dome and the Merced River, as photographed from the Centennial Bridge…a well known spot to tourists and photographers alike.

Actually it’s a good time to explain the HDR process with you. This photo is nearly impossible to get with a digital camera, or most cameras for that matter. The light on Half Dome is quite bright…but there is hardly any light on the river or the trees.  From the Valley floor, the sun has already set below the horizon. Cameras today do not have the ability to handle such a diverse range of light. 

If you go to the bottom of this blog, you will see the original photo as the camera automatically metered it. The trees are way too dark and the sky and Half Dome are almost blown out.

The HDR solution I chose here was to take five shots in quick succession, using a different exposure for each one. So in the underexposed photos, Half Dome and the sky are correctly exposed. In the overexposed images, you cannot even see the dome or the sky, but the river and trees are well lit.

In the digital darkroom (AKA my computer), I use a program called Photomatix. It takes the five images and brings out the best exposure for each part of the picture and then combines them into one. But, it is far from perfect…to finish off the photo, one needs to import it into Photoshop and work more magic to make it really stand out.  

I actually darkened the trees a bit to bring it as close to what my eye saw that night…and I had to tone down the reds and yellows on Half Dome. Its great fun exploring the possibilities of HDR…so look for more HDR photos from Yosemite soon.

Here is the single shot of this image using the metering determined by my Nikon camera.  Now you know why I am excited about HDR.

Postcard from Yosemite

Here is the first photo from my recent expedition to Yosemite National Park. This is Lower Yosemite Falls, complete with a double rainbow. Fortunately I knew what time to get to this spot for a possible rainbow shot…and was lucky enough to get not just one, but two rainbows.

At the time I took the photo, on the bridge downstream from the falls, I was being soaked by the heavy mist coming off of the falls. I would have loved to do this shot in HDR (High Dynamic Range), but that requires a tripod and a quick series of 3-5 shots. There was no way that was going to happen with all the mist from the falls. The only way to capture it was to hide the camera with my back to the falls, turn quickly, then take the shot as fast as possible.  Then turn around and wipe the lens off…then shoot again.

There was a place to shoot the falls without getting wet, but there was no rainbow visible there. I did take other exposures out on the bridge to capture the rainbow, but this was the only one that had a double rainbow.

Most of my photos on this trip were done using HDR techniques, but they take a while to “develop” in the computer. You will be seeing some of them shortly.

We had great weather on this trip…sunshine every day. A few days after we left, the weather turned bad and there was actually some snow in Valley.  Very unusual for May. High above the valley floor there is still a ton of snow so the waterfalls are going to be full for a while longer.

Look for more from Yosemite soon.

Postcard from Yosemite

This is Bridalveil Falls in May, five years ago.  It was taken at sundown from a location called Tunnel View (because it is close to a tunnel) on the main south-bound road out of the valley. I used a telescopic lens to get this close-up.

Five years ago, the falls were very full as the melting snow was 125% above normal.  You can see the huge mist clouds billowing up from the base of the falls. On that trip, I could not get anywhere near the falls to photograph as the mist was very intense. This year, the melting snow is 175% above normal, so the falls (and the Merced River) should be even fuller.

I show you this photo for two reasons: One is that it is a good photo…two, because I will be there next week. Yes, I am off on one my road trips again in two days.  I will be gone for two weeks, both for the Yosemite trip and to visit family and friends. It’s been almost two years since I have been there, so am really looking forward to this trip.

I am flying up to San Jose where my brother will pick me up. Then, next Tuesday, I am meeting up with my friend and fellow photographer Dave Forster and heading to Yosemite for a few days. On this trip, I will be doing at great deal of HRD photography to hopeful yield even better photos.  It will be so great to “come home” to Yosemite Valley where I spent so much of my childhood.

Obviously I won’t be able to write this blog on a regular basis, but will try to post a few pictures as I will have 3 camera with me, two of which will be used for instant photos to post here, as well as Facebook and Twitter. So stay tuned…please.

Postcard from Tucson

This photo is part of my project on architectural studies. This building is the medical library building, which is part of the large University Medical Center on the UofA campus. The medical facilities are located on the north side of the campus and are quite extensive. If you watched the TV coverage of the massacre here in Tucson a few months ago, you saw the hospital portion of the UofA medical facilities. Believe me, there is much more to the place.

I just love the view of this building. I called the photo, “The Graph” as it reminds me of a graph of my retirement fund accounts after the recent economic downturn….down, down, down.  I was temped to flip the photo so the graph pointed up to make me feel better, but I resisted the temptation.

I have posted some of my architectural study photographs on my Website and also on Flickr. There are many more that I have not processed yet. Again, my goal with these photos is purely artistic….and, as I have said here before, there are a plethora of subjects here in Tucson to keep me busy for a while.

I would appreciate any comments you have on this photo, or any others, for that matter.