Big Day at Yosemite National Park

What a big day it was yesterday. I shot over 2GB of photos, which is the first time I've filled a card, ever. Good thing most of them were crap, otherwise we'd be nearly out of space on the laptop.

Today I made the mistake of uploading my images to Picasa first, thinking it would be a breeze to then link to them from within the blog. Not so friends, it's a FUCKING PAIN IN THE ASS.

Next time I will stick to the old skool method (which is also a pain in the ass to be honest).

Merced Grove - Giant Sequoias

First up yesterday was Merced Grove - one of several groves in Yosemite which are home to Giant Sequoias. Surprisingly, these giant creatures are quite used to humans now, and don't get surprised at all when you creep up on them.

This picture of some dumbass trying to take a picture should give you a sense of the size of them.

They are just huge, and words barely begin to describe how majestic they are.

If you look closely at the trunk of this one, you will see what appears to be a figure trapped in the tree. Perhaps this unlucky traveller really annoyed the gods of the forest one day.

Now they must spend all of eternity trapped in the trunk of the tree, gazing out at their fellow man.

As we hiked back up the trail, we saw a giant silver tree stretching upwards. I'd love to say it was raw talent that led to this shot, but alas, it's more a case of serendipity. Regardless, I still like the way it turned out.

Can't have to much of a good thing huh? There are some other ones with the camera shooting right up the trunk which are cool as well but I don't want you falling asleep in the middle of the post.

I really do LUURRRRVE my shiny new tripod, and it seems like the butterflies do as well. I'm starting to wonder how I ever lived without it. It opens up a whole new dimension of photography that wasn't even possible before!

Granite at Play

I've been banging on and on about crappy light (which is really an excuse for my poor skills as a photographer) so we decided to hang around Yosemite until late afternoon. Even though it was a long day, it was worth every second of it.

I continue to be impressed with the quality that comes out of Kat's A720IS. It's a bit annoying that she manages to take such good pictures. I'm almost at the point where I start taking lessons from her.....

This is Bridalveil Falls. Suppose it's named for a bride's veil. I only include this due to the difficulties in getting the shot - the spray is quite drenching, and the stupid people standing IN FRONT of the camera and tripod also make life difficult.

This, folks, is Yosemite Falls. We are standing at the valley bottom in this photo. We are also being absolutely consumed by mosquitoes as well - guess the pools of water in the meadow serve as an ideal breeding ground for the little c***s. We climbed to the top of the fall. Geez it's a long way when you look at it like that. Phew.

The late afternoon really did make the sky (nearly) that blue. I can't help myself but tweak the vibrance slider just a LITTLE bit.

So this is the famous Half Dome.
Nerds among us may draw some similarity to the Sierra Studios logo - this is no accident!

I really love how the granite looks. Over time, giant layers of the rock exfoliate away, forming the strange patterns. Look in the centre of the image - can you see the eye staring back at you?

All right, just to make it easier on you, a close up. You can see the layers that have sheared off much more clearly.

Looking away from Mirror Lake.

I've been thinking about combining multiple images into one for a while. Apparently it's called High Dynamic Range Imaging. Basically it means you can combine multiple exposure levels so that you can bring details out in both shadows and highlight (of which normally you would have to sacrifice one).

My first attempt didn't have enough images (it's only made from two) but you can see that the sky and the tree are now visible. The tree was super dark, and the sky super bright.....

The second is a shot of the North Dome using Mirror Lake as a .... mirror. This one's a bit better, but also suffers from a lack of images - being made only of three, with probably not enough range to do it justice. Still, looking pretty darn cool.

Finally this one, which I think is the best. North Dome, Half Dome and Mirror Lake all in glorious hyper-colour. I think this shall be my style, hyper-real colours and such.

Remind me not to upload my pics to Picasa first. Still it means there's a Yosemite gallery now.

Turd
The turd had its brakes fixed on Monday - the rear pads were fuxx0red. The difference is amazing. Thanks, David. How about telling me they were nearly ready to be changed!! Never mind the small issue with going up a driveway that was too steep. Oops.. good thing nothing's badly damaged....

Tomorrow the Turd crosses through Yosemite, via Tioga Pass. The Jeep will remain unhooked. Today I tried to find an always-on circuit on the fuse panel that we could use for the Brake Buddy but there appears to be nothing without the ignition being on. Perhaps I'll just remove the coil......

Rock on.