Yosemite

[tgtaylor]

Another sign of climate change: I read that a rattlesnake was discovered at Cathedral Lakes in Yosemite. The lakes are at the 9200 and 9500 foot elevation well beyond the altitude that the rattlesnake is found which is rarely above 6500 feet.

Thomas

[Drew Wiley]

I stumbled onto a couple rattlers at 7500 in a dry stretch of Sugarloaf Valley down in Sequoia not too long ago. Whether there was actually a rattler as high as
Cathedral would depend on the source. That heavy tourist trail area, and lots of those folks might have confused an ordinary snake for a rattler. Lower down, folks
often confuse gopher snakes for rattlers, but gopher snakes deliberately mimic them, even shaking their tail. Around here someone panicked and called 911 about
two mountain lions running around the golf course, which turned out to be two golden retrievers. Flatlanders. But the high Sierra version of rattler is different than
the big diamondbacks in the foothills - smaller, less aggressive, more of a tan color. Somewhat resemble our coastal rattlers, but not quite the same.

[tgtaylor]

Here's a work-print of an image of Washington Column that didn't go any further than that. It's too dark in the top left (nothing on the negative in that area) and can you see the shadow of the tree (Pondorosa?) from over my shoulder? But I still believe this scene has potential and I am determined to re-shoot it again. But this time I will go when tourists are not rafting down the Merced or walking up along the right bank.



The idea was to shoot the Washington Column with the Merced and this was the only spot I found where this could be done. I had scouted this spot out late the afternoon before and originally I thought that it would be the easiest since no tourists were anywhere near. But alas I didn't bring my compass with me and ended-up returning to this location 3 times the next day before the shot was made and even then I estimated that I was about an hour late and further had to wait for everyone to get out of the way.

Here's the view that Carleton Watkins made in the 1860's:



Note that it was shot from a location further downstream and on the opposite side of the Merced. Due to the density of the trees now in the area, I believe that replicating his shot would be impossible today. Philip Hyde managed to incorporate the Column, Half Dome, and the Merced which is a fine photo but a little too far away from the subject (Washington Column) than what I had envisioned:



But I am not sure that even this view is still available today.

Technical: Printed on Oriental RC at grade 2.5. The white dot appearing in the water in the lower left is an artifact from the scanner, apparently from the software as it doesn't appear in the preview but only the scan and then starts out as a "Big Dipper" with several white spots and gradually subsides to the one spot depending on the sizing. I'm debating whether or not to purchase the software to make the Epson 3200 compatible with a Windows 8.1 64-bit OS or put that money towards a new scanner.

Oh, and I didn't mean for the Watkins image to appear that large - it just came that way.

Thomas

[tgtaylor]

I can't wait to get back!

Thomas

[John Kasaian]

Another sign of climate change: I read that a rattlesnake was discovered at Cathedral Lakes in Yosemite. The lakes are at the 9200 and 9500 foot elevation well beyond the altitude that the rattlesnake is found which is rarely above 6500 feet.

Thomas

Rattlers can't read elevation signs worth a squat

[Drew Wiley]

Rattlers read just fine. They just need red reading glasses over their heat-sensing pits, not over their eyes. If you want to fool them, then pull a couple of green
filters out of your camera bag and substitute those. They can't spot you if you become orthochromatic.

[tgtaylor]

Here’s one of the jewels captured on the trip printed as a salted paper print toned in platinum. This is not even close to the original print which is currently hanging over the kitchen table (I like hanging out in the kitchen for some reason) but it shows the potential of the salted paper syntax. See that cloud in the upper right? In reality it was a dark grey cloud but the process rendered it as a subtle white cloud – much more subtle in the print as depicted in the photo. The “defect” on Lower Brother which I had noted in an earlier post all but disappears and overall the print appears soft but not as soft as if it was shot with a soft focus lens. In other words it’s both soft and sharp – perfect IMO.



Thomas

[karl french]

It was nice to see this in person last weekend. It's quite beautiful. Thanks for bringing it to the meet up.

[tgtaylor]

Thanks Karl. It was nice seeing you again and viewing your work. It was also great to meet about 20 other LF photographers and view their work up close and in person. I found the experience to be very inspiring personally and look forward to the next such meet-up.

Thomas

[dsphotog]

Great stuff, Tom. (as usual)
That's an 8x10 contact?
What lens was it shot with?