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Figure 1. Black Oak Trees near Curry Village.
Black oak trees are common in Yosemite Valley. You can see them at places like Cook's Meadow, Swinging Bridge, Lower Yosemite Falls....... While most people are interested in waterfalls and rock formation in Yosemite, plants are equally attractive when the time is right.
For black oak trees, autumn is the prime time to enjoy their color of leaves. Their golden or yellow colors are similar to those of aspen trees, though the bark is not white. The autumn foliage is at their peak in about late October and early November.
A friend from Taiwan traveled to Bay Area in early December. The return was planned on Friday night, but the ticket was sold out. His return trip has to be re-scheduled one day later and he got one day for a local tour! We made our trip to Yosemite on that day, though his colleagues enjoyed theirs in San Francisco. He likes to photograph and brought his Canon 5D Mark II. We arrived the park at about 6:30am so that no sunlight was wasted. I knew there wouldn't be much snow left and didn't expect too much on winter scenery. When we made our stop near Curry Village, the steam made the meadow and trees look so good and we spent much time there. Figure 1 is one of those shots.
Overall, that day is productive and beyond my expectation. Most important, my friend had a good time there!
Figure 1. Snow Geese, Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge, CA.
It is kind of unexpected for me to photography birds. I bought a used Canon 100-400mm lens from eBay in 2009 primarily for large mammals in places like Yellowstone National Park. At that time, I didn't expect to use this lens a lot. After all, I live far away from that kind of places. There is no way for me to go there often. Since I wouldn't use it often, a used lens should be good enough.
Sometimes lens finds a way. I knew there are people out there shooting birds. So I thought why not give it a try? Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge is just a short drive from where I live. That's where I start to shoot birds. From later on, I went other places, too.
To me, migratory birds are fun to watch. Every winter, these birds come south to places like California to spend their winter. Snow geese are among them. When standing alone, they are not as impressive as birds like bald eagle or others. But their number and sound are always amazing. One thing distinguishes them from others is the number, especially when they burst off together to blanket the sky. While they are small, the power is huge. This is always the moment I am waiting for whenever I see them on the ground. The two figures here are some of my experience for this aspect.
Although this number of beauty also happens to other birds such as sandhill cranes, Canada geese and tundra swans, snow geese seem to be the easiest to see, relatively speaking. If you haven't seen this ever, it is worth the effort to go there and enjoy it.
Figure 2. Snow Geese, Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA.
Figure 1. Vista Encantada, North Rim, Grand Canyon National Park.
South Rim of Grand Canyon offers many fantastic view points, either on Desert View Drive or Hermit Road. I like to call them from A to Z Points. Starting from A Point, most people feel more than satisfied when they are at C Point. You don't really need to go all the way from A to Z Points to appreciate the beauty of the Grand Canyon.
Although there are not that many view points on North Rim, people are more laidback and the pace is slower on North Rim. Another difference between North Rim and South Rim is the vegetation. North Rim is about 1,000 feet higher than South Rim and receives more rain and snow. Instead of pinyon pine or juniper on South Rim, aspen is more abundant on North Rim. This makes North Rim a good place to see autumn foliage.
This shot is taken at Vista Encantada about one hour before sunset. Although there are not many aspen trees here, couple aspen trees still work pretty well to hint the coming of the autumn. The contrast and color are also good. Overall, this is not a conventional shot from A to Z Points and I really like it.
Figure 1. Peaks and Lakes around Sperry Glacier.
Figure 2. Sperry Glacier is in the background.
Figure 3. Little Matterhorn from Sperry Glacier Trail.
Figure 4. A mountain goat is seen from Sperry Glacier trail.
Figure 5. Sperry Chalet is a backcountry chalet to access Sperry Glacier, though there is a backcountry campground nearby.
Sperry Glacier is not known to most visitors in Glacier National Park today. Grinnell Glacier in Many Glacier or Jackson Glacier from Going-to-the-Sun Road are two glaciers most visitors see. In the early years of the park, Sperry Glacier is one of the main attractions because there were no roads to the east part of the park.
The closest distance, which is 10.5 miles one way, to see Sperry Glacier is from Lake McDonald Lodge. People usually stay one night at Sperry Chalet or nearby backcountry campground, which is about 6.5 miles from Lake McDonald Lodge. Then they hike 4 miles to see this glacier the next day. Sperry Chalet is very popular and usually open from early July to early September, depending on the weather. Reservation in months (usually by early April) is necessary to get one night stay there.
Although the glacier is not really impressive when you hike there to see it, the surrounding peaks and lakes are worth the efforts. On the other hand, it is good to see this glacier as it may disappear after 20 years. For the wildlife, you have good chance to see mountain goats from the Chalet to the Glacier. Marmot and pika may also be seen around rock piles along the trail.
Overall, I am glad to hike to Sperry Glacier after one night in Sperry Chalet. This is one of the places you will enjoy being there.
Figure 1. Washburn point, Yosemite National Park.Washburn Point is an overlook on Glacier Point Road in Yosemite National Park. This place is very close to the more popular Glacier Point. So they look similar from certain angle.
I've been to Glacier Point many times, but may not stop by Washburn Point every time. The condition on this day at Washburn Point works out best from my previous visits. While this is not the golden light moment, the lighting is good enough to me. In fact, one of my interests is to get good photos without golden light. I like the line of trees in the foreground. They help create the 3D feelings of the scene. Another key element to make this photo work is the clouds, I think. These cumulus clouds are just at the right place and make the whole composition strong.
Just like the gradient of temperature or wind is a factor to get a good shot of a geyser, clouds may be a factor to get good photos in addition to good lighting. Many factors have to be in place to be a strongly composed photo and this doesn't have to happen at golden light hours. When a photographer routinely seek more factors to get a good photo, he would not be restricted to a narrow window of time such as golden hours. Thus he would become more productive and competitive.
Figure 1. Old Faithful Geyser at Full Eruption, 5:08pm, September 11, 2010. Sunset is at 7:44pm.Old Faithful Geyser is the icon of Yellowstone National Park. This is a must see for first time visitors in this park. After all, geysers only exist in handful places on earth and Yellowstone has the largest collection of geysers in the world. You can feel the excitement from the crowd when they see this famous geyser at its full eruption. On the other hand, feeling their disappointment about some initial "fake" eruptions is as fun as their excitement.
In one busy summer evening, there is a grandma from Michigan sitting beside me waiting for the Old Faithful Geyser. Her family just arrive the park via North Entrance from Gardiner, MT. The crowd start to build up around Old Faithful Geyser and she happens to find a seat beside me. Her family seems busy handling the check in process in Old Faithful Inn at the same time. When the "fake" eruption happens, she hurries to get some shots and then asks me, "That's it?" "It's a warm-up." I reply. Then she smiles and says, "Tell me when the real thing happens."
Photographing Old Faithful Geyser or other big name geysers is not as straightforward as it seems. The so-called big name geysers include Beehive, Daisy, Grand, Castle and Riverside Geysers in Upper Geyser Basin and Great Fountain Geyser in Lower Geyser Basin (Firehole Lake Drive) as well. At first thought, a geyser looks like a reversed waterfalls. It just "flows" in the opposite direction as a waterfalls. To get a shot of geysers seems to be similar to get a shot of waterfalls.
In fact, more conditions are required to get a good geyser photo, especially big geysers. First, geyser eruption is accompanying with steam. If the bursts of the water are surrounded by too much steam, it looks like a steam vent and thus produces a failure photo. In general, the bigger the geyser the more steam it will generate at eruption.
One way to get rid of steam is to have wind blowing, though you can not ask but hope. Yes, wind is a factor to get a good geyser photo, such as Figure 1. Photographers know good lighting is essential for good photos but few photographers know wind can be beneficial in some cases. Of course, you should not be in the position where wind is blowing toward you. Usually I like to be in the position when wind is blowing laterally. It may still work if wind is blowing away from you. You can make a judgment by watching the direction of the steam before the geyser eruption. Although the wind may not blow in the same direction or completely calm down when the geyser erupts, I take my chance.
Figure 2. Old Faithful Geyser at 7:42am, July 7, 2009 . Sunrise is at 5:47am.When the temperature difference between the air and the water of the geyser is large, the amount of steam is large. This means sunrise or early morning tends not a good time to get a good geyser photo, but sunset of late afternoon is ok. Yes, sunrise and sunset makes difference for geysers (and some others). This also means winter tends not a good season to get a big geyser shot. Even in the hot summer, the time before 9:00am is not really warm and there is usually too much steam around the geyser. Early morning also tends to be calm without wind. Figure 2 is a typical Old Faithful Geyser shot in early morning. You can compare the two photos and see the role of the steam.
So does that mean afternoon a better time than morning to get a geyser shot because the air temperature is higher? In term of temperature difference, this is correct. Unfortunately, summer afternoon tends to be cloudy. The clouds usually start to build from mid morning. When shooting a geyser, one should avoid too many white clouds in the background, which competes with the white bursts of the geyser. This is mostly not a problem when shooting a waterfalls. The background of a waterfalls is usually not as bright as the white color of the waterfalls. This gives good contrast naturally. Even you manage to find a clear background for the geyser, the clouds may just move to block the sun at the moment when the geyser is erupting. Without the light, geysers seem to lose their power.
Concluding from the above, good lighting is not enough to get a good geyser shot like Old Faithful. Wind is preferable assuming you stand in the right position. Hot air temperature is also favored to reduce the steam. Sky should be as clear as possible, but black clouds in the background after the thunderstorm can be beneficial.
A good geyser shot requires more conditions than other landscape. Big geyser eruptions last minutes but takes hours to wait, which adds another difficulty. Thus you won't often see good geyser shots with powerful and explosive feelings. Check the gift shops or bookstore. Shots at Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone or Travertine Terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs tend to appear in book covers more often than geysers. This is also true on the website like Flickr. People share photos at Grand Canyon and Mammoth Hot Springs more often than geysers in Yellowstone.
So how do I get a shot like Figure 1? Feel the temperature, feel the wind and check the sky. Then give it a try.
Figure 1. Red-Winged Black Bird.In California, and perhaps other places, red-winged black bird is a common sight in spring and summer. This one is shot with Canon 50D with Canon 100-400mm lens. This combo of equipment is not supposed to get a shot like this. As this is a small bird, it tends to fly away when you are trying to close in. Most of the time, I can only fill at most one ninth of the frame at the distance it allows me using this combo.
In early March 2012, I was in Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, which is quite remote from any big cities. I saw this bird when I was still far away on the auto route. Somehow it didn't fly away when I approached. I didn't expect this and so I had to back up my car to get a good angle of it. Surprisingly enough, it still allowed me at a close distance like this, which is my ever closest distance to this bird. So I have good opportunity to get a close up of this bird.
The time is around sunset and the horizon is quite hazy. This provides a good background for this bird. This is especially useful for a bird or animal (bison, moose, and black bear) in black. If the background is too bright, it is difficult to get the details of the subject. In addition, the bright background competes with the subject. The soft effects from the bokeh work pretty well in this case. It is not easy to wait for all conditions right, especially for wildlife. But sometimes it just cooperates!
Figure 1. Colter's Hell.Yellowstone is a hotspot for not just geology, but also tourism. Over 3 million tourists visit this park every year. Winter offers a special treatment to see how the hot and cold co-exist. In fact, John Colter, first recorded white man to visit here, spent his first time in winter. Most people didn't believe what he saw and gave this place the name Colter's Hell.
While many places can claim its world-class scenery, Yellowstone features the hell-like or alien planet kind. After you have visited here in person, you won't blame why those people didn't believe John Colter, especially visiting here in winter.
I stayed in Old Faithful Snow Lodge some days during Christmas in 2011. One of my goal is to catch a Yellowstone-like winter scene. I got up early and headed out on Christmas Eve. The temperature is above 0.0 F, which is warm by Yellowstone standard. The sun was not up yet. I just walked in Geyser Hill and saw if I can find a place to get a special shot.
Basically, I need both thermal features and snow to show off Yellowstone's winter. This seems simple, but it is not easy to find a good lighting with a strong composition at the same time. After I walked a while and arrived around Giant Geyser, I saw the anticipating potentials and determined to stay put here. Here I had lots of snow on the ground and trees. The right hand side trees looked eerie and left hand side trees with mist gave some sense of the depth of the scene. I also had steams rising up to show the thermal feature of the park. The sun was peeking through the mist every now and then. Mostly it was blocked but sometimes found a hole to show up. I also liked the soft lighting condition for the cold feelings of the winter. he scene was dynamic and so I have to take lots of shots. Whenever the sun peeked through, I took some shots. Figure 1 is one shot during about 30 minutes staying alone here.
In term of good lighting and strong composition, this is the shot I tried to achieve. It is also special as you won't see similar kinds of photos often. For this shot, however, it still looks good without the steams. I wish the effects of the thermal feature can be stronger. This is a successful shot, but it does not entirely meet my expectation.
Well, this is about photography. To wait for all conditions right is extremely difficult. Most of the time, one can only try to get the most and hope for the best.
Figure 1. Pronghorn buck, Ash Creek Wildlife Area, CA.Talking about the pronghorn, it is usually related to states like Wyoming or Montana. In fact, they are quite abundant today due to the conservation efforts. Most western states have herds of pronghorns, including California.
Modoc Plateau in the northeast corner of California is the best place to see pronghorns. There are about 5,000 to 7,000 pronghorns here and their population continues to increase. Unlike most populous places in California, Modoc Plateau is quite remote and thus pronghorns have space to thrive. Alturas is the major town in this area. US-395 south of and CA-299 east/west of Alturas are the places to see pronghorns. If you are lucky, they may even stop at the roadside.
Ash Creek Wildlife Area is located along CA-299 near the town Adin. This place belongs to California Department of Fish and Game (DFG). July and August are the months to see pronghorns here. I saw about 10 pronghorns, bucks and does, during a trip in early June. I suspect some does may have or be about to deliver fawns, but I just can't sight them. Fawns are usually born in late May and early June. They are still too young to outrun predators. So they hide most of the time until they can run well.
To my delight, these pronghorns didn't run when they saw me. They showed some sort of curiosity and keep watching me for a certain time. Some even walked closer to have a better look at me. Although the lighting at high noon is not good, I have no complaint about the photo quality with the Canon 100-400mm lens and Canon 50D body.
Most people living in California don't know they have an easy way to see pronghorn. Well, maybe it is not that easy because of the long drive to get here. For people living in the Bay Area, it takes about 6 to 7 hours to arrive this region, which is better than flying to Wyoming or Montana.
For people living in southern California, Carrizo Plain in Central Valley is within the reasonable driving distance, though pronghorns there are not doing well. I will cover this part later.
Figure 2. Pronghorn buck and does, Ash Creek Wildlife Area, CA.
Figure 1. Park Avenue, Arches National Park.There are cases that the scale of a scenery is the point to photograph. For example, a giant sequoia is so huge, the Grand Canyon is so massive or the road is so long.
The intuition is to use a wide angle lens to handle such a case. It seems to make sense to catch a large scale scenery with a lens having large coverage. Unfortunately, this doesn't work in many, if not most, cases. To show something huge, we usually need to show something small. To put it in a more general sense, we need to have a reference to compare. This is usually achieved by a telephoto lens rather than a wide angle lens.
On a winter trip, I was in Arches National Park, Utah. One thing I feel so strong is the huge rock along the road, Park Avenue and Courthouse Towers for example. figure 1 is shot near Park Avenue using a 15-85mm lens on Canon Rebel XSi. The focus range of this shot is 85mm, which is 136mm on a full frame body. Some people don't like the car in the shot, though I include it on purpose. The reason is to provide a reference to highlight the huge size of the illuminated rock. I prefer RV or bikers, but it is difficult to have such a luxury in winter. I like the car in the shadow and so it won't compete with the illuminated rock I want to show. The feelings of scale may still work without this car because people have sense about the road. Overall, a car is a better reference than the road to enhance the feelings of the scale. Figure 2 is another similar case shot in Yellowstone National Park using a 120mm lens on Canon Rebel T2i (192mm on a full frame body).
This is one reason why some scenes look good on the spot, but they don't look quite right in the photo. When we frame a scene, something may lose. The feelings about the scale is easily lost due to the finite size of the photo format, just like the accuracy is lost due to finite digit length of the computer in scientific computation. A larger size of the photo may help, but it doesn't solve the root cause.
Photographers may not notice the difference between standing close with a wide angle lens and standing further with a telephoto lens. This does make difference to the effects of scale, which is a vital element in some scenes. It's not about lighting, post-processing, or quality of the equipment. It's how you know about the scale.
Figure 2. Summer Afternoon near Chittenden Road, Yellowstone National Park.
Figure 1. Forster's Tern, Mountain View Shoreline Park, CA.Mountain View Shoreline Park in the Bay Area of California is one of the best place to do bird watching. Many people take a stroll or do jogging here. So birds in this park see lots of people every day and are habituated to people. In general, their distance is closer than birds in other places.
Among all the birds in this park, Forster's tern is one of the most abundant. Most of the time I went here to see and shoot them. They usually hover over the lake and then dive to catch small fish or others. From what I have observed, they are territorial. When other birds are in the vicinity of an occupied tern, the "host" will make sound to ask them away. If these birds are still staying around, the "host" will fly to chase them away.
It seems to me May or June is the mating season and you may see two birds forming a pair. When one tern dive to catch a fish, the other will make sound for the fish. And that's how you may get a shot like Figure 1. In fact, I saw the similar scene many times, but I miss the shot for some time. For others it is too far for a quality shot, the lighting is not good enough, or the focus is not accurate enough. I am still looking for a better shot for this. Well, May is coming and hopefully I can make it.
Figure 1. Pronghorn jumping off the fence in Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge.Pronghorn is one of my favorite wildlife to watch, though this animal is not as popular as bear, elk or bighorn sheep. This is the fastest land animal in North America and only cheetah in Africa can be faster. If they both run a longer distance, cheetah can not catch up with pronghorn.
Although the pronghorn are such great runners, they are poor jumpers. At least, most books say it this way. The fence can easily block their way and give them a difficult time to migrate for seeking food. There is, however, always exception.
One day I was on my way to Grand Teton National Park from Rocky Mountain National Park. I decided to go by Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge, Wyoming and hoped to see something. Pronghorn was on my list and I really saw lots of them around. When a herd of about 10 pronghorn gathered near the fence, I though I can take my time because they have nowhere to run. To my surprise, they didn't follow what the books say. The whole herd just lined up and jumped off the fence one by one.
I guess I may be the worst predator they have even seen so that they try their best to do what they really don't want to do. Any way, I consider I am pretty lucky to get couple shots of this rare action from pronghorn.
Figure 1 is my last shot of their jump, while Figure 2 is an earlier shot for this short encounter. I stayed about one hour in this Refuge.
Figure 2. Pronghorn lining up and jumping off the fence in Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge.
Figure 1. Horsetail Falls at sunset (the so-called firefalls) in Yosemite.There are two firefalls in Yosemite National Park. One was the falls from Glacier Point on summer night. This man-made firefalls has been prohibited long ago and now it is a history rather than reality.
The other firefalls is the Horsetail Falls at sunset in winter. Galen Rowell is credited to popularize this waterfalls, though he is not the first to discover it. Horsetail Falls only has a small amount of water fed by winter snowfall. This restricts the opportunity to see the firefalls. Mid to late February is considered the best time to see this waterfalls at its best. Don't feel surprised if you see people merging at some strange place in the park at this time. This is a very popular winter activity in Yosemite.
Does it require good skills or equipment to get this natural wonder? Not really. You need to be lucky because the clouds tend to block the sunlight at the last moment, even on a sunny day. This waterfalls is small and high on the cliff. You will need a telephoto lens to get it when the moment is right (sounds like a Cialis ad). This one is captured at 180mm on an 1.6x cropped body, which is 288mm on a full frame body. Most people brought a tripod to shoot this waterfalls, but I didn't.
There are many places to shoot this firefalls. One thing for sure is that you should be on the east side of the El Capitan. One of the most popular place is the picnic area on the Northside Drive near Cathedral Rocks. Figure 1 was shot there. After you pass Yosemite Lodge/Camp 4, try to find a place to park when you see the sign of picnic area. Usually you will see some cars on the roadside and many in the picnic area. You may have to park far from the picnic area and walk a while to be in the right place.
Some people shoot this firefalls on Southside Drive across Merced River. In this case, you will need to have a longer telephoto lens.
If the conditions of water amount, sun and clouds are right, you should to see it. If not, as the Boston Red Sox fans used to say, "wait until next year."
Firefalls
Beauty of Scale
Right Place, Right Time, ......and Right Bird!
Color Me Blue
Colter's Hell
Old Faithful Geyser
Same Shot Different Day: Washburn Point
From A to Z Points: Vista Encantada
Steam and Snow, Yellowstone National Park
Autumn Praire and Forest in Yellowstone
Snake River Overlook
Swiftcurrent Creek and Cracker Flats
Ghost Trees at Winter Sunset, Yellowstone National Park
Winter Forest in Yosemite Valley
Joshua Tree, Joshua Tree National Park
The Cathedral Group
Winter Sunset at Mammoth Hot Springs
Stormy Morning in Badlands
Giant Sequoia, Mariposa Grove
Lake Sherburne
Heart Spring, Yellowstone National Park
Painted Dunes
Elk Meadow, Redwood National and State Parks
Where the Buffalo Roam
Best Care-Killing Scenery
Storm in Grand Canyon
Desert Bighorn Sheep in Zion
Gaylor Lakes Basin
Silent City
Sol Duc Falls, Olympic National Park
Ocotillo in Borrego Palm Canyon
From a Distance
Lower Yellowstone Falls
Indian Paintbrush
Chicken Spring Lake
Autumn Foliage in Yosemite Valley
Mammoth Hot Springs in Winter
New Year 2017 at Sunset Point
Snow Shower in Grand Canyon
Desert Chicory
Point Supreme, Cedar Breaks National Monument
Cottonwood Lakes Basin
Waterpocket Fold Under Storm
Giant Forest, Sequoia National Park
Show Me the Power: Daisy Geyser
The Need for Speed
