I went to Yosemite today for some photography and research. The Yosemite Research library is a great place btw. I've been trying to shoot abandoned trailheads and the one I found today turned out to be for a different abandoned trail I didn't know even existed---yipee !
"So get to the point, John." You say.
Bridalveil falls was incredible. The parking lot was just about empty---2 cars(all the parking lots were like that--at Camp Curry there were maybe a dozen cars in the entire lot, and only 3 cars parked at the Happy Isles lot) The falls were but a wee trickle but there were good size snow caps on the top and bottom, and to the right the cliff was encrusted with an array of icicles (it reminded my of the pipes on a church organ) Every half hour or twenty minutes some ice would break off and sound like a stick of dynamite. I made the icy hike to the base and set up shop. In order to get everything in the shot I had to get the camera waaaay down low and use considerable front and back movements. Now a 240 G Claron has a lot of wiggle room but I felt I'd certainly be punching the performance envelope so I wanted to loupe as much of the gg as I could. the problem was the gg was so close to the ground and surrounding boulders I didn't have a straight 'shot' at it. Fortunately I had a Silvestri tilting loupe and thats what it did...tilt! I've had this loupe for a couple of years now and this is the first, the very first time I've used the tilting feature---and it works!
I know this sounds like a no-brainer but it occured to me while lying on my stomach over some very uncomfortable boulders and covered with a dark cloth that this tilting business is pretty cool stuff! If you have a habit of getting down and dirty with your camera just above ground level you might want to consider a tilting loupe--its not a gimmick like I have long thought it to be.
Cheers!
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