Winter was a no-show!!! Not cool. Last weekend, I had the great fortune of traveling to California to attend a photography workshop hosted by the Aperture Academy. My amazing wife gave this trip to me as a gift for Christmas and I was thrilled. The plan was that I would get to photograph Yosemite in all it’s winter grandeur. Sadly, winter did not cooperate and we were left with no snow, no leaves, and lots of brown. That said, c’mon, it is Yosemite and it was awesome.
I am still very much a rookie photographer, so the help that Ellie and Scott provided during the trip was outstanding. I am slowly but surely starting to get a feel for what I am doing. Long way to go, but what a fun journey it will be.
This workshop lasted two days and we to to photograph quite a few sites. Basically, wake up before dawn, shoot during the morning light, sneak in a few spots where sunrise/sunset is not so critical, take a break, and shoot until dark. As it is winter, that makes the break short and dark early. Not too bad.
It is amazing how many pictures you can take only to end up with 6-8 that you really want to share. This was about a 1% rate this trip. Maybe I am picky, but I want to really find where I am being my best. A bit of snow would have been agame changer of course.
The picture below is one I took the day after the workshop when I took a,long walk through the Mariposa Grove of Sequoias. It is hard to take a picture that does any justice to those amazing trees because it is easy to lose a sense of scale without a object to relate them to. I was thrilled when I saw this building near a tree. I am sure this is a much photographed site, but that does not change then satisfaction I experienced in playing with different lenses, filters, angles, etc. a good learning experience. The capture below was my favorite of the set.
The hike was amazing. This was really the only snow I saw all weekend, and that helped keep the crowds down on the trail, especially deeper back in the grove. It was nice just to sit down on the ground and enjoy the solitude and the trees.
(actual post date 4/23/2013)
The Forgetful Wanderer 