In previous posts, I’ve shared my photos from Truckee and Lake Tahoe, Bodie Ghost Town, the Mammoth Lakes area, and most recently the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. In today’s post, I will share photos from the rest of Yosemite.
This wooden enclosure was built by Jean-Baptiste Lembert to protect the Soda Springs from grazing animals.
We stopped at Tenaya Lake just long enough to snap a few photos (including the neutral density long exposure below), but most of our time was spent in the valley.
I highly recommend the moonlit Valley Floor Tour to anyone visiting Yosemite. As a photographer, I was worried I wouldn’t have enough time to set up my tripod and take photos, but the tram stopped in several locations. At some of them, you can’t get off the tram, but if you work quickly, you can set your tripod up on the seat and take a photo from there (space allowing), and you can actually get off the tram for a few minutes at Swinging Bridge and Tunnel View. Aside from the opportunities for photos, the experience is way more fun than driving around at night in a car because you get to experience the open air while a park ranger tells you a little bit about your surroundings.
Above is El Capitán, with the trees in the foreground illuminated by the lights on the tram. This was taken from the tram, with my tripod set up on the seat. This is one of the places where the tram stopped, but we weren’t allowed off. Below is Tunnel View. Here, we got off for about ten minutes so I had plenty of time to set up and take a few shots.
Above is the view from Swinging Bridge, another location where we got off the tram. Below are two trees illuminated by the lights on the tram. I took this from the tram just before we got going again after stopping at Swinging Bridge.
I decided I really wanted to go to Valley View for sunset. I was not prepared for how hard it is to find. It’s about a 30 second drive from the Ahwahnee, but it’s not marked, so unless you know where it is, you will keep driving by it. Finally, after going by it about 3 times, I was able to locate it.
This church was another item on my bucket list. Dusk and a wide angle lens offered the perfect conditions under which to capture it.
Glacier Point offers arguably an even more incredible view of the valley than Tunnel View. I especially enjoyed being able to view the Ahwahnee from above.
When we passed by Tunnel View on our way back from Glacier Point, the clouds were gorgeous, so I had to step out for a long exposure photo.
It was really hard to leave Yosemite, but up next was Napa Valley! Stay tuned for my final post on this California Trip!
Tools I used to create the photos this post: Canon EOS 6D, Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM, Canon 24-105mm f/4L F/4.0L IS EF USM AF Lens, Manfrotto 190XDB Tripod, Manfrotto 496RC2 Ball Head, B+W 77mm 3.0 ND 110 Filter, B+W 77mm Circular Polarizer Filter, Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD, Adobe Photoshop CS6
