Yosemite

[tgtaylor]

You can still get good images in the valley during the height of the tourist season. The light gets harsh fast so you have to work early (before the tourists get out and about) and in the mid to late afternoon when the sunlight begins to penetrate a similar atmospheric volume. Keeping the tourists out of the picture, especially in the afternoon, is a major challenge though.

Thomas

[Drew Wiley]

Doubt that. I just don't like crowds period. Even when I was a kid and Yosemite was far less crowded in summer than it is now, we still routinely called it, "the City". Some place to go on a date for a slow drive, or to pull a prank on some ranger. I hiked thousands of miles before I ever even owned a camera. Climbed hundreds of rocks before I ever heard of "rockclimbing" - not, maybe not El Cap, but dangerous enough. Ran rapids before I ever heard of "whitewater sports", built heavy bicycles and did crazy stuff in them before anyone every heard of "trailbiking". It was just growing up. What every other kid around the hills did, besides hunting and fishing, crawling thru caves, and getting chased by bulls. Yosemite Valley is just a tiny bit of the Sierra, and as you well know, not the only spectacular glacial valley in the range. It is the most accessible to the public. Even half dome is only the third largest dome in the range; most people have never even heard of the other two. Yeah, it can be a lovely spot at the right time. But I can think of lots of places I'd much rather be in summer in the Sierra. Looking at
one of my prints last nite from two years back. Giant meadow, spectacular monolith at the end of it, complex clouds, and high peaks at the horizon... and not one
single other person anywhere, except for me and my two companions. Only saw two other people the entire following week, who did a shortcut over Milestone.
The only company was bears and chipmunks, and neither bothered us.

[Drew Wiley]

I was responding to ROL, Tom, not you... we apparently posted at the same time.

[ROL]

...when the sunlight begins to penetrate a similar atmospheric volume.

I'll use Thomas' quote to paraphrase the issue. Sometimes you gotta look beyond the obvious to see and experience what is good, winnowing through the chaff to get to the seed.

[Drew Wiley]

I have no problem with chaff, or weeds either. Probably very few people can burrow thru underbrush with an 8x10 and heavy pack quite like I can. But when I do set up, I like a contemplative experience, something, uh, er, devoid of boomboxes and raves. Sure, even in summer one can wander a bit in Yosemite Valley to find a personal quiet spot and an interesting rock of perspective. Camping there, sneezing amidst smoke and noise is another subject. I don't shoot stereotypes anywhere. I have a full portfolio of prints from Pt Lobos, for example, and with the exception of maybe one print, nobody would ever guess where I took them. I have taken only a handful of shots ever in Yos Valley, and one of them is an El Cap shot I'm pretty certain nobody has every done anything like, at least in LF perspective or quality. I mean... how many people are stupid enough to hack their way up a steep ice cone piled in that book of the NA Wall and chisel off the top with an ice axe to get a tripod platform for an edge-on long-lens shot? (But the fun part was getting back down!). I stood right in a set of AA's tripod holes last
summer in SEKI high country, recognized a famous shot of his, exactly, and even had better clouds then he did. And it was a nice level rock for the tripod. But I
pointed the camera the opposite direction, with a long lens into some very intricate detail on a rock face, and asked myself, how on earth has everyone missed
that shot? We all see things a bit differently, and I can get just as good shots two blocks from my house as I can in the mtns, and have prints to prove it. But
I go the mtns more for the solitude and personal experience than even photography itself. Always have. Sometimes I just sit there and enjoy the light fading, even
if it means passing up an incredible shot. There will always be another picture, not another round at life, at least in that sense.

[Drew Wiley]

.. but yeah, ROL, I did get the drift of that remark, "beyond the obvious". You pegged the wrong guy on that one. I have a major body of work all done on those
roads everyone whizzes past without even a glance as they rush up to Yosemite to see the stereotypes. I've displayed and sold a big color print from Bodie that
looks unlike anything anyone else has ever taken there; and nobody would know where it was taken if I didn't tell them. Most (not all) of my high country shots are of details that would also be difficult to geographically place. Postcard type I'm not.

[ROL]

That's a hell of a defense, Drew. I may finish reading it someday. Suffice to say, your drift-getting needs tuning. And as for whizzing… let it go, let it go (to self).

[Drew Wiley]

Yeah, I'd far rather be one one of the little dirt side roads or other backroads than where the cars can whizz past... but there are some awfully interesting rocks and bits of ruins along some of the main roads too. Hwy 120 has some of the worst traffic, along with the narrow roads with turkey ranch semis driving like bats out of hell. But it doesn't take much scouting to get away from that. Lovely little towns like Copperopolis have been literally leveled to make room for disgusting mini burbs; but Chinese Camp is still relatively interesting. I won't even say where my favorite spots are. Lots of hill people would sell level their own grandma's house if they thought they could develop it. Surprisingly little sense of history. But I know you haven't bothered to read this anyway, ROL. Don't want to distract you from your back issues of "Descent". (Inside joke, but it was once a real periodical in Yosemite, if a deliberately cynical one.)

[Preston]

The fire is approximately 500 acres. Foresta has been evacuated. About 300 firefighters are working the fire in an area that burned in 2009. A DC-10 airtanker, as well as S-2's from Columbia Air Attack (CalFire) are flying the fire.

From the YNP web site this morning...

Road and Campground Closures Due to Fire...

Big Oak Flat Rd between Crane Flat & the El Portal Rd is temporarily closed. There is no access to Yosemite Valley via the Big Oak Flat Rd or Hwy 120. Tioga Rd is open & accessible via Big Oak Flat & Tioga Pass Entrances. Crane Flat Campground is closed.

Update 12:15 PM today: The fire is estimated to be 2,100 acres. It is 5% contained. There is a mandatory evacuation order for the community of Foresta, and the area known as Old El Portal. The Crane Flat Campground has also been evacuated.

Update from our Sonora news

--P

[Drew Wiley]

Expect a mess for awhile, plus a lot of smoke. Welcome to summer. As soon as they have this one out, there will be another.