Giant Sequioia at Mariposa Grove

The Giants Sequioias at Mariposa Grove is one of the natural wonders of the world. Nestled at southernmost tip of Yosemite National Park, Mariposa Grove is a treasure of the Sequioias.

These magnificent trees, can grow up to several hundred feet, and at Mariposa, two of the largest trees in the world reside.

The challenge of photographing this magnificent grandeur is different from the vast expenses of the Yosemite or the Grand Canyon. But because the trees grow in a forest like environment, shooting distances are much nearer...and even with my HC28, I am not able to capture the entire tree without pointing the camera up.



Or just shoot the foot of these magnificent plants:



The Grizzly Giant, is the oldest tree in the grove...some 34,010 cubic feet (963m3) of wood.



The light streams through the tree tops makes things interesting...



We were told these trees do not have a natural lifespan, some are already some thousands of years old. They only get destroyed by humans or die because they are struck by lightning and burn. We see evidence of this quite clearly around the park.

Fallen trees: Yosemite, CA

Fallen trees are a fairly common sight in the Yosemite Valley. Something I don't remember seeing much, living in the tropics.

Here are two, in tribute to the landscape of Yosemite.

The first, I felt was better conveyed when rendered in black and white.



This was photographed on the way to Yosemite Valley, about 2 miles before reaching the gateway entrance as we drove from San Francisco.

Metering for black and white is slightly different, and requires a different visualization from colour. I usually only shoot in black and white when I want to emphasize textures...especially differing textures of the subject and its environment. In this photograph, the tree showed a pronounced twisting of its trunk, probably established during its formative years, before it was likely to have been struck by lightning or broke in high winds. The contrast to the bare trunk and the lush surroundings is stark. Even though this photograph is rendered black and white, the leaves just behind the trunk almost leaps out as greenery. And even though I had not used a graduated ND filter, the sky was captured with deepening tones.



The next tree looks like the same type. I photograph this not too far from the first trunk. The same twisting is also seen on the trunk. But rendered in colour, the effect is different. Altogether less stark, and emphasizing less on the textural differences but more on the hue and colour tone. I shot this using the hyperfocal method...where placing the lens at its hyperfocal distance will allow everything to be in focus from half that distance to infinity. Note the entire trunk is in focus. As are the nearest point, about a meter from my lens to the mountains in the background.

Scenes from Yosemite

Some more photographs from the Yosemite trip.

As we were waiting for the sun to set at Glazier Point, for the glowing golden light to magically appear, we sat at our positions, waiting. Waiting. I thook this shot.



I intentionally framed such that the people in the foreground are visible...with their multicoloured clothing contrasting with the landscape. As it turned out, the light was begining to turn golden as it hit the Half Moon surface.

Somewhere along the valley floor, the Merced River runs, and an old stonebridge...well, known as StoneBridge...runs across it. I took a very short hike down to the river level, and captured this shot.



As the light was coming from the other side of the bridge, I metered to place zone 5 at the rocks which form Stonebridge. And allowed the exposure to be determined from there. This pleasantly resulted in the lighted patch of the under-side of the bridge at zone 8, and still left enough detail in the submerged river bed next to the rocks in the foreground.

And driving round Stonebridge on the Valley Loop, we came across El Capitan Meadows, with the Merced River in the foreground.



My feeling as I came across this scene is the cool, lush and refreshment the water provides, in contrast to the looming, slightly forbidding El Capitan in the background. I metered to place the face of El Capitan in zone 8+, allowing it to be very bright in the photograph, but still retaining plenty of detail. The rest happen to fall into the zonal range of the camera, allowing me to capture even the deep shadows in the foreground right with good detail.

The Golden Gate Bridge, California

The Golden Gate Bridge...an icon, a symbol of San Francisco. Photographed millions of times, yet, each time, different. I wanted to capture some of the beauty, the grandeur and essence of this wonderful bridge.

The first shot was taken from the Yatch Club at Horseshoe Bay. I selected the 80mm normal lens for this photogrpah. The clouds were rolling into the harbour and the bridge, as it often does in San Francisco. We were hoping for low hanging clouds/fog, which frequently leave the bridge almost completely shrouded, leaving only the top pillars of the suspension towers peeking out. But the clouds were higher that afternoon. And covered the tops of the towers, leaving the lower level clear. Metering was done center weighted average.



From roughly the same vantage point, but with the 28mm wide angle, and lowering the camera position gives a completely different perspective. You can also see the scale and expansion of perspective caused by the wide angle lens - maing the bridge seem quite far away. The depth of field of the 28mm lens at hyperfocal extends from about a meter to infinity. And I used this optical phenomena to achieve full depth of field from the rocks which were no more than a meter away from the lens, to the bridge, which effectively is infinity.

The sun was a bit harsh, beating down from the right of the frame. You can catch the flare from the 28mm lens, as the sun was shining directly on the front element.



I like this next picture the best. Somehow it captures the bridge...red, strong, somewhat shrouded within the clouds, and the ship passing provided some balance to the photograph.



Shot from the Golden Gate Recreation area, the wind was strong. Gusts threatening to upset the tripod. As I was using the H3D with a Gitzo 3541LX tripod, which was fairly large and heavy, and very stable, I had little problems. The wind also brought with it low temperatures...I don't know what it was, but it was very cold. The Hasselblad battery keep threatening to shut down...giving me low battery warnings, though it never shut down for the 30 mins, and about 12 photographs I shot there.

We then moved to the viewing point just off Vista Point Road. Using the 120mm, my intention was to show the details on the bridge, bringing out the technical and mechanical aspects. Shot with the 120mm macro lens.



The next and final shot I moved a little bit further left, with the 28mm gives a completely different photograph. The wide angle lens, the equivalent of 20mm on a full frame 35mm DSLR, the field of view is altogether wider, and the perspective exaggarated.



The foreground is emphasized and the background made smaller, providing additional depth into the photograph. The foreground also provides the near-far landscape arrangement suggested by Adams in his book The Camera. I could have cropped the shadow in the foreground right, but I though I'd leave it, because it was the shadow cast by the small stone wall which I rested the tripod on. But in the larger 1920 pixel wide image you get when you click on the image, I cropped the shadow off to show a 16:10 aspect ratio.

Beaches in California

Monteray...a beautiful area, by the Pacific Ocean...just at the top of the Monteray Peninsula.

The Yatch Club at Monteray was particularly beautiful that afternoon.



Metering for this was done with center weighted average from the camera.

Sausalito, another beautiful little town, nestled in the bay, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. we had just finished shooting the Golden Gate Bridge, and was heading to Sausalito for a spot of dinner, when the setting sun made such a beautiful tone in the sky, we just had to pull out the tripod and shoot.

Metering for both were quite simple with the camera providing a center weighted average. I chose the boat hull as the point for metering, which actually places it in zone 5. The rest of the picture fell in place. The raw shot looked underexposed, but in Phocus, I could pull up the shadows to show detail. A little saturation was added in CS4 to intensify the setting sun colours.



The tonal gradations, especially the larger picture on clicking, and in print is absolutely beautiful, and what draws me into this photograph.



And further south...La Jolla beach in San Diego



The last golden light, before sunset at La Jolla Beach. I metered the tree and placed it in Zone 1, so that it is almost featureless and plunged in deep shadows. This made the setting sun glow with its golden rays. Again, the tonality of the photograph is what makes it for me. I intentionally placed the person's silhoutte to draw the viewer into the photograph with the human element.




In this next shot, I took candidly...I set up the tripod just behind this lady looking into the sunset. I intentionally framed such that both the lady and the sun was in the photograph. Metering was average, and not using the zone method. The raw image looked surprisingly close to the final image I am showing here. I had only adjusted the levels slightly, and pushed up the saturation a tad.

US National Parks: The Temples of the Grand Canyon

Interestingly, many of the peaks within the canyon are named after Hindu inspired names. As I understand it, these Temples of the Canyon, as they are known were named by a member of the original geological survey team, who was fascinated with Hindu philosophy.

Many of these peaks look very similar...I might have made errors in identifying them...if so, apologies and please let me know.

This first study of the temples is intended to convey a sense of tranquil and calm, with the dark clouds brooding...threathening rain. I selected to use a moderate telephoto lens (120mm) to compress of the image. This effect from telephoto lenses makes the temples look like lines drawn next to each other:



Metering was intentionally done to make the landscape dark. I placed the lightest part of the North Rim at zone 5. This allowed the temples themselves to be in the cover of shadows at zone 2 to 4, each taking a slightly different zone, allowing it to be differentiated from the others. This also placed the trees in the foreground to be in zone 0, totally dark and without texture.

The Buddha's Temple:



This image of the Buddha's Temple is exposed using a 120mm lens. The metering scheme was done to place the peak of the Temple at zone 5. This principle of placing your main subject, or a part of the main subject in zone 5 is a standard scheme with good success for a variety of subjects and moods. In this case, it allowed me to place the clouds in zone 8, and the shadows from the clouds in foreground left in zone 2.

Vishnu's Temple, catching the last rays of the sun before sunset.



This is an interesting shot. The light from the setting sun casts its last golden rays on the Vishnu's Temple, turning it into gold, glowing as it evokes the feeling that the temple is emerging from darkness. As the sun was almost completely gone when I made this exposure, I metered to place the tip, and the very brightest part of Vishnu at zone 8. And allowing the image to fall in near darkness of zone 2.

I enhanced the saturation in CS4, to bring out the intensity of the bright golden rays, and to accentuate the glow.

Isis' Temple



This picture of Isis is also shot with the 120mm. Metering was done using the main subject in zone 5 principle, and allowing the image to fall into its own place. The clouds, look light, cottony, and in a sense happy.

And a self portrait...with my shooting partner's camera setup - a Canon EOS 5Dmk2 with 17-40L lens.



And some wildflowers, shot with the 120mm:



It is interesting that wildflowers grow like these in cracks and crevices of the rocks by the South Rim. It was particularly windy that day, and I had to shield the flowers with my camera bag, set the tripod up, and shot with the meter in average mode. The resultant image did not have the critical sharpness to be printed full size, but at web sizes, even in 1920 pixel wallpaper sizes, it is fine.

US National Parks: The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon...huge, monstrous canyon, measuring some 280 miles (446km) long and some 18 miles (29km) wide in some areas. I figure, we can put all of Singapore, lengthwise across the North and South Rim, with space to spare. Afterall, Singapore is 225 sq miles, and the Grand Canyon 1904 sq miles, an area approximately 9 times the size of our small island.

The mighty Colorado river runs through it, some one mile (1.8km) from the ridges of the canyon. This is a truly magnificent landscape. Huge, cavernous, and very well organized, with lookouts nicely marked. And numerous signs showing the peaks. Many of the peaks look very similar to the uninitiated, and I have named some of the peaks...but not always sure they are correct.

First a sweeping view of the entire canyon, shot from Grandview Point (7399ft, 2256m)...this is a 6 panel panorama with the 80mm lens (normal), stitched. The intent of this panorama, printed at full resolution 300dpi will be some 10 ft (3m) wide and 18 inches (about 0.6m) tall. As noted elsewhere in this blog, doubling these dimensions is easily attained with no loss of clarity or resolution. Printed like so, the panorama presents the viewer with an 180+ degree view, and allows the viewer to draw himself into the picture, parts of the image each time. Click on the image for a larger...1080 pixels high image. Note large image is 3.6MB, but need to be seen at minimum that resolution for some impact. Large prints will be even more interesting.



I selected the Hasselblad HC2.8/80 lens, which provides an almost normal perspective with each frame. This is approximately equal to the field of view from a 50mm lens in a regular full frame 35mm dslr like the Canon EOS 5dii.

Metering for stitching has to be done manually. And in scenes where some part of the final image is in strong sunlight, and others in deep shadows present significant technical challenges to the photographer. For this image, I elected to meter for the peaks on the Temples of the Grand Canyon to be somewhat in zone 5. This allowed the bright clouds to be placed in zone 8, perhaps 9. And the dark crevices of shadow in the canyon to be in zone 1. Stitching is done with a geniometric head, level carefully in 3 axes so that panning does not add any geometric distortions to the image. I use the Photoclam Multiflex head, which allows micrometric adjustments to be made in any of the 3 axes. A macro focussing rail is used to set to pivot at the exact entrance pupil of the lens, in this case 79mm from the sensor position. 6 frames are exposed using this technique, carefully making sure that there is at least a 20% overlap between frames.

The image is roughly processed (default values used) in Phocus, and exported as a Layers PSD file, to CS4 for alignment and panorama stacking. The resultant image is adjusted for levels, and slight sharpening. Note the full resolution is far more than can be displayed on a computer screen. For example, the film crew perched on the rock at almost far left foreground can be fully resolved in a full sized print.

Another image, made from 8 panels from Yavapai Point (7262ft, 2213m), using the same equipment and technique. Metering was selected by placing the darker portions of the clouds in zone 5. This placed the cliffs on the scene left in zone 8. And the tourists at far right in zone 1. You can make out the tourists sitting in a row in the larger picture.



As we were there, a shower hit the canyon...passing through quickly, as strong winds carried the clouds. A rainbow appeared...



Metering for this was simple. As I was fearful that the rainbow would disappear, I elected to use the camera's Average Metering mode, and made this exposure using AE at f/16. After the fact, as it turns out, this placed the brightest parts of the landscape at zone 9, and the clouds, brooding and dark at zone 2.

Another view of the canyon...note two lovers looking into the sunset...not a posed shot.



To enable sufficient light to fall on these 2 human subjects, I metered for the gir's white top to be in zone 6/7. This placed the protuding rock at the lower part of the center also in zone 5. And plunged the clouds into a brooding darkness, but with the bottom catching the last rays of the setting sun, turning golden.

More detailed studies of the various Hindu named peaks next.

Prints in various sizes available. Prints of the panoramas up to 6m wide are possible. Please contact me.

US National Parks: Antelope Canyon

Antelope Canyon...a natural wonder. About 5 miles off the town of Page, the canyons have held thousands of photographers and tourists with its charming and wonderful shapes and hues. As it was within the Navajo Indian Reservation, American Indian guides are required. For the Upper Canyon, these tours take about an hour. For photographers who want to spend a bit more time inside the canyons, a longer Photographer's tour is offered. I took the Photographer Tour. Chief Tootsie, who apparently runs one of the largest agencies in the area is the promoter. The tours start at Page downtown, and tourists and photographers are carried on 4WH trucks on road to the canyon. But the last 3 miles or so, is on unpaved, desert dust ground...and undulating.

The photographer's tour, though still better than the regular one, proved disappointing. The Navajo are perhaps being too greedy, letting in too many tourists into the canyons...supposedly their sacred grounds. As a result, the tour was very crowded...very difficult to shoot pics without someone kicking your tripod or moving into the picture.

The Upper Canyon is wide, and the sandy floor of the canyon an easy walk.

The tonality of the sandstone walls and its wierd and wonderful shapes are fascinating. At mid-day, light from the sun comes into the canyon in the form of light shafts, famous in their own right. The Navajo guides throw sand into the light, causing it to disperse and show up in pics as light shafts. Beautiful.



Metering was done to place the highlight on the canyon wall at Zone 5. This meant that the spot where the light shaft fell became overexposed at Zone 10+. But to preserve the tonality of the image, and to show shadow detail, which fell on Zone 2, I had little choice. Exposure at ISO50 was in the region of 0.2s at f/22. You can see a Navajo guide at the extreme right of the picture. I could have cropped him out, but left him there to show the situation. For prints, I will have the guide cropped out. Such is the crowd. I had so few pictures of the Upper Antelope, these 2 technically deficient ones are the only ones I have.

The fine sand is also a nightmare to the equipment. The sand was as fine as talc, and thrown into the air, it permeates everything. I felt the sand in my lungs, mouth, throat, and of course it would settle on camera gear. My shooting partner, who shot sans protection, had his Canon 5Dmk2 and 17-40L covered in sand...including the insides of the zoom...making it feel a bit gritty to move. He reports, happilly though, this is easily cleaned with a bottle of compressed air back at the hotel.

But as for my equipment, I did not want to take any chances. I had earlier corresponded with several people who had shot there, as well as Hasselblad in Sweden - fearing that the dust would enter my camera and lenses. Afterall the H3D features an air cooled back...air is actually sucked in by a fan and circulated around the back to cool it. I was afraid that drawing air into the sensor would make it unusable. I was recommended to either wrap the camera and lens in Saran or get Kata KT702 Elements Cover. Saran wrap was a cheap solution, but I feared overheating. So I went with the Kata and it worked wonderfully. I found hardly any sand inside the enclosure.

Another view of the Upper Antelope, this shot taken almost directly up into the sky.



I metered at the middle rock to place it in Zone 5. This meant the sky at the top of the picture would blow out beyond Zone 10. But I had wanted the shadow areas on the rock left of the frame to show detail and texture, hence placed them on Zone 1 or 2. Notice also the light, because it is reflected off the walls, has a blueish hue on the shadow areas, but the parts bathed in more direct light like in the lower middle of the frame, shows a beautiful golden glow. I love the play of light, and the tones it creates, as well as the abstract shapes and lines within the sandstone.

These canyons are created by flash floods, where the rushing waters carve the intricate, amazing curves on the sides of the rock. The Navajo consider this as sacred ground.

The color and gradations of tone are as fascinating as are the shapes of the walls.

I also went over to Lower Antelope Canyon, just across the road, some 2km away. Here, there were far less crowds. And with a photographer pass, I can stay within the canyons for up to 4 hours, shooting as I wish. Allowing guided groups to pass. The canyon closes at 4:30pm, so we needed to be out of there before dark.



The tonality of the walls and the shapes are no less intriguing. In this shot, I placed the wall left of the frame at middle Zone 5. This meant that the sky, peeking into the center of the image as a crack would blow out. You can also observe the blue tinge on the shadows. Lens flare from the HCD 4/28 can also be seen as a rainbow like flash. I don't think this strategy of metering was very successful in this picture, but I decided to show it as a negative example.



The next image above, in my opinion is better. I had metered to place the middle of the image. This again caused the bit of sky peeking into the frame at the top to blow out. But this metering scheme placed the bright spot where direct sunlight hit the canyon walls at Zone 10, perhaps a bit beyond. In looking at the raw file, the underside of the rock on the left was in the deep shadows - zone 8+ to 9. Using the Phocus tools, I can recover the shadow details. I also could have recover some sky detail, but decided to let this part blow slightly, to give the impression of intense light coming in. This exposure scheme allowed me to place the wall left at a final expoure of Zone 3 or perhaps 2. Giving it dimension and allowing the striations to show, and the tonality to reveal itself.

The next image was my favourite.



I also placed Zone 5 at smack center of the frame. This allowed the sunlight to cast a beautiful tone on the canyon walls in the background. The lines on the walls making a beautiful abstract. It also placed the foreground object...some debris of branches of dead trees to fall in Zone 9, highlighting it. This image needs to be seen larger. Please click for a 1920 wide sample. And when printed to 40"x30", it is spectacular.

Some parts of Lower Antelope are so narrow, one can hardly squeeze into it. And Lower Antelope requires some climbing - ascending and descending steel stairs, while Upper Antelope is completely flat within the canyon walls.

The geology of Lower Antelope is different from Upper Antelope. The beads you see, punctuating the walls are iron deposits.



This image was much easier to achieve. The entire tonal range can be captured within the dynamic range of the back, and merely metering to place the middle of the frame at Zone 5 allowed the entire image to fall within the other reproducable zones. I included this image to show the tight spaces one has to squeeze through in Lower Antelope...the space barely 2 feet between the walls. The tonality of the image is also rather even, perhaps making a slightly boring image.


Exiting the canyon, I shot this self portrait of my shadow in the 4pm sun...

US National Parks, Horseshoe Bend, Page Arizona

As we drove out of Yosemite, we headed for Arizona, for Page.

Just off the highway, about 2 miles from the town of Page, is a geological curiosity, and a photographer's haven called Horseshoe Bend.

The Colorado River negotiates an almost 360 degree turn around this large rock, just downstream of the Glen Canyon Dam, and Lake Powell. As the river and the rock is part of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, it is open to boating and camping.

The lookout is rather terrifying, my tripod is positioned some 1000 ft (about 320m) above the Colorado River. This is quite a scary thing...there are no barriers between you and the sheer drop.



From the lookout point, photographers and tourists alike stand, sit, squat at a few protuding rocks to admire the unique landscape. To shoot this picture, I selected the ultra-wide Hasselblad HCD4/28 lens, which provides approximately 90deg diagonal field of view, approximately what a 21mm would give on a 35mm full frame dslr. I selected this lens for two reasons: firstly it allowed me to take in the entire view in one go. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it provided me with a perspective which suggest a vertigo effect with the awesome drop. Stitching with a 80mm lens, which provides a normal perspective would rob me of the ability to convey this.

I metered to place the rock in zone 5. This photograph was taken about an hour before sunset, the sun itself was just about off the frame on the top. I shaded the lens, careful not to cause it to vignett with a hat. You can still see some detail on the far background, but that part of the image would have fallen at Zone 9 or 10, hence a slight haze can be seen. The sun itself is off frame. The red of the light makes a more aggressive looking rock. The colours were enhanced slightly by pushing the saturation in CS4 slightly. The 1024 wide picture shows a bit more sky, and on clicking, the 1920 wide image, being 16:10 in aspect allows me to crop the sky out.


But the image left me a bit dissatisfied to suggest vertigo. I tried again, later in the evening, with an even larger field of view.



I elected to remain with the 28mm, but stitch 3 frames to form one panorama. I could have covered the scene with perhaps 4 shots from the HC2.8/80, a lens which would provide a normal field of view, as would a 50mm on a DSLR. But I wanted to make the perspective even more scary...to draw the viewer into the immense drop, while allowing him to admire the details. To provide this perspective, I had to remain with the 28mm lens instead of the 80mm, but to include more of the sides. This squeezing of the scene exggarated the perspective even more, and makes a stronger image, suggesting vertigo to some people, especially the larger image when clicked or when printed full size. A friend of mine told me that he had an urge to jump by looking at the image, so he can experience the textures as he enters the image.

Shot just minutes before sunset, the light was failing and changing fast, but you can see the sky is totally blown out, as the sun was setting directly across from us, and in the frame. The golden rays catching the sides of the canyon making it glow. The rock itself is in shadows. I wanted to capture this almost dusk feel for the image, so I metered the sky as zone 10. The sun is actually just about smack in the middle of the picture...but metering the sky at zone 10, meant that the brighter sun was blown out in the sky...erasing it from the image with a featureless, white sky. I cropped the sky out a bit, so the expanse of white is less threatening. This exposure scheme, allowed the rock to be placed in zone 3, and the sides of the banks at zone 5. This, I believe captures the visualization I had in my mind's eye of the scene, as it was dusk.

I am undecided if I prefer the darker dusk photograph or the brighter one. Both are of the same subject, same shooting position, but treated differently in shooting techniques, resulting in two photographs with vastly different emotional impact. Which one do you prefer?

A view of the people around the side...looks dangerous? it is! its a sheer drop of 1000ft, with no barriers between you and the edge of the cliff.



and just for fun...my transport during the SouthWest USA tour...we clocked some 3000 miles on this SUV...Ford Explorer. Shot minutes after sunset in Page, at the car park leading to Horseshoe Bend.

US National Parks: Yosemite El Capitan

El Capitan, elevation 7569ft (2307m)...its name is imposing itself. A sheer piece of granite, rising 900m above the valley floor in one vertical face. Certainly not the highest peak in Yosemite, but one of the most dangerous to climg, and definitely one which almost forces itself on the viewer, due to the sheer face of the rock.

From the valley floor, the Merced River flows...at this time of the year, it is but a small stream. This shot was taken from the south bank, just before the turning at at the valley floor to the path which splits between continuing on the loop or right into Wawona. We found some respite from the summer heat in a cool pond...the water levels were low this September...I heard there was record water flow in the falls and rivers during the summer.

Here, a view of El Capitan on the left, and the Cathederal Rocks on the right, almost reflecting in the calm waters. I did develop another version of this shot, with a digital soft grad ND filter on the sky, but decided to leave the image alone as I had visualized this as a bright, light feel when I saw the scene.

I metered to place El Capitan at about Zone 9, and allowed the rest of the scene to fall in place.



From just a couple of meters upstream, I shot this next shot, zooming in on just El Capitan and its surroundings, in portrait mode. Balanced with the water in the foreground, the imposing mountain looks in stark contrast to the inviting river waters in comparison to the hard, sheer rock.



I selected the 28mm lens, and framed to include some branches of the trees at the upper cornerst o give reference to the scale: a treatment which use the foreground/background relationship to establish scale and distance. The trees at the foot of the mountain are huge pines, towering some 100m above the ground.

Metering was taken using the main subject as the source. I wanted to place the lightest part of El Capitan almost at the white limit - suggesting that it almost shone in the sunlight, as it did that day. I placed the brightest at Zone 9. The 16 bit afforded by the medium format back meant that I had sufficient exposure lattitude without having to resort to a graduated filter which would have been typically employed in the film days, or even with a 14 bit 35mm digital camera. But the Hasselblad had sufficient dynamic range to cover details both in the shining rock, and the dark shadows. Using this metering scheme, the darkest parts of the of the rocks and water at the lower right registered Zone 1. This allowed the lower left to have the sunlight flirting with the water...crystaline clear, showing the rocks.

(the Gallery Frames were done by scripts written by Joe Colson)

The next shot, taken from El Capitan Meadows, showing a detail of the South West face and intended to give the impression of a forbidding presence. Strong, powerful. This is a 2 panel stitch from a panorama with about 50% overlapping images. Shot with the 120mm lens. Exposed such that the shadows of the cracks within the rock is in Zone 5.

To Dodge or not to dodge?

To burn or not to burn

Special weekend article, as I am troubled with this image that I have shown this image of the Yosemite valley as seen from Tunnel View already earlier this week.

I am a bit troubled with the triangular patch on the right hand side. The lattitude of an 8 bit display device like the computer screen is not sufficient to show the tones within the shadow. And as I read and re-read some of the articles by Ansel Adams, especially Moon over Hernandez, where he describes revisiting the negatives and reprinting them...when he revisited Moon over Hernandez, he printed the sky darker than he did originally.

He advocated the use of dodge and burn quite extensively in his printing. Many pages of his book "The Print" is dedicated to this. And I thought, perhaps this image might benefit from using a dodge technique to bring out some detail in the shadow areas on the bottom right.

Here is the original:



And a very simple process to experiment, using the dodge tool in CS4 to simulate the same during printing of a negative. I did this non-destructively on a duplicate layer, before blending the layers together to get the jpg file. I am very new to this technique, so the dodging is not done as well as I would have liked, but this gives the impression of what it would have looked if I did.



Which do you think is preferable? The shadows cast by El Capitan itself and on its foot is ok, as I had visualized that when I shot it, intentionally placing it within the deep shadows.

I think in a full sized print, with the printer's larger color gamut and tonal range, the shadow would have shown some texture of the trees, though dodging would still bring out the details more.

Thoughts appreciated.

US National Parks: Yosemite Half Dome

The faces of Half Dome

Half Dome...another magnificent granite mountain...also a favourite of Adams...his most famous and endearing capture being Moon over Half Dome...a stunning photographic masterpiece.

The light plays games with Half Dome...the character or approachability of the huge mountain changes with the time of day, and time of year. In the day, the granite of Half Dome is forbidingly hard, imposing in stature and powerful. I made this shot from the Curry Village car park, shot in harsh daylight. I intentionally placed the trees in the foreground in Zone 1, making them mainly silhouettes, allowing the immense strength of Half Dome to force itself into the photograph.



Half Dome changes again, even in the same mid-day light. The next shot was taken from Mirror Lake, at the foot of Half Dome. We had seen a poster at our hotel in Mariposa, showing Half Dome, reflected on a pool of water, and had wanted to capture the same image. Mirror Lake was originally a small lake at Tenaya Creek between the peaks of Half Dome and North Dome. But artificial attempts to make a dam in the interest of an early tourism attraction in the late 1880s and mining of the sand caused sediments to accumulate, and the lake is close to disappearing. Only in the peak of spring and early summers, when the snow melt makes torrents of water come down the peaks is it a lake. Most of the time, as it was when I visited, it remains a dry sandy valley.

It was a hot day when I shot there...the lake bed threatening to bake me and my equipment. A little stream flows where a lake would have been in high water. Where I set up my tripod, during high water season, would be submerged under water some 1.5 to 2m, leaving only the very top of the boulder in the foreground above water..



I placed the shadows of Half Dome in Zone 5, and allowed the rest of the exposure to fall where it did.

But by evening, at sunset...Half Dome...the warmth and glow of the setting sun, makes the mountain look less forbidding...and a little more approachable. This shot from Glazier Point lookout. At an elevation of 7,214 feet (2,199 m), 3,200 feet (980 m) above Curry Village, looking directly into the face of Half Dome.



The golden light of the setting sun, creates a glow on the peak. Shot with the 120mm lens.

This next shot was taken just after the sun had set. Bathed in an eerie moonlight, of blue, almost lilac hues, the imposing mountain becomes even more approachable, pretty even. With this light, it is an almost frantic bid to capture the image before the entire scene plunges into darkness. I managed to get sufficient light to shoot at an exposure of 3s at f/16 only by pushing the digital back to ISO800, compared to ISO50 I have used for the earlier pictures.

I selected the 80mm lens, which shows a different magnification to the one above, but also a slightly different perspective...a more normal vs a compressed telephoto view to the former.