In the Moment:
Michael Frye's Landscape Photography Blog
by Michael Frye | Apr 24, 2016 | Yosemite Photo Conditions
Morning reflections, dogwood and the Merced River, Yosemite NP, CA, USA
We had a nice spring storm on Friday. Here in Mariposa we heard some loud thunder, and experienced a torrential downpour for about ten minutes. We got about half and inch of rain altogether, but Yosemite Valley got an inch and a third, which is a big total for April. Snow fell on the rim of the valley, and the Glacier Point Road, which had opened on Tuesday, was closed again temporarily.
The storm cleared after sunset on Friday, and Claudia and I drove up to Yosemite Valley early on Saturday morning, hoping for mist. There wasn’t much mist, but we found some dogwoods in a small patch of fog near the base of Middle Cathedral Rock, which kept me busy for awhile. Later, as the sun started to reach down into the valley, I photographed more dogwoods against the background of the Merced River, with golden reflections in the water.
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by Michael Frye | Apr 17, 2016 | Night Photography, Travels and Stories, Yosemite Photo Conditions
Vernal Fall and Liberty Cap at night with a lunar rainbow, Yosemite. 20 seconds at f/4, ISO 6400
Claudia and I made a nighttime trip up the Mist Trail recently. The ostensible purpose of this hike was to look for lunar rainbows, and we did find some, as you can see from the photos. But that was just a bonus. The real reward was being up there on a beautiful, moonlit night, with the roar of the falling water filling our ears, and having this normally-crowded trail completely to ourselves. It was so much fun.
The moon will be full on Thursday night, and with the good water flow this spring I expect that many photographers will be making their way to Yosemite to photograph lunar rainbows on Yosemite Falls. Don Olson has posted lunar rainbow predictions for Lower Yosemite Fall, but the spray will be soaking the bridge below the lower fall, making it hard to keep lenses dry during long exposures. Unfortunately Don hasn’t posted any predictions yet for Upper Yosemite Fall, and my trigonometry skills aren’t good enough to make those predictions myself. I think lunar rainbows will be visible on the upper fall from Cook’s Meadow at some point on Thursday evening, and the following couple of nights, but I can’t be positive!
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by Michael Frye | Apr 14, 2016 | Yosemite Photo Conditions
Dogwood blossoms, Yosemite Valley, from April 21st, 2007
Last year the dogwoods in Yosemite Valley bloomed two or three weeks sooner than normal. This year they seem to be on a more typical timetable, but may still arrive a bit early.
Claudia and I were in Yosemite Valley on Tuesday afternoon, and saw the first signs of the dogwoods blooming. When dogwood blossoms first appear they’re small and green. Over the course of about a week or so they gradually become larger and brighter until they turn completely white. (Except for the centers, which become yellow-green. Those centers are the real flowers; the white “petals” are actually bracts.) On Tuesday there were lots of green blossoms, and only a few white ones. We didn’t see a single tree with all-white blossoms, only a few that were partially white. But that should change pretty quickly. There should be a few trees with all-white blossoms by this weekend, and I’d guess that the majority will be in full bloom by the end of next week.
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by Michael Frye | Apr 11, 2016 | Advanced Techniques, Yosemite Photo Conditions
Poppies, lupines, goldfields, and tri-colored gilia, Merced River Canyon, Wednesday afternoon. A focus-stacked blend of four different frames.
It’s spring, which means it’s wildflower season, and focus-stacking season.
There’s been a secondary poppy bloom in the eastern end of the Merced River Canyon near El Portal. No big swaths of poppies, but smaller patches, and some of those patches are mixed with other flowers, which always makes things more interesting. Claudia and I spent the afternoon up there on Wednesday, and had a great time. I’ve included a couple of my favorite images from that day here.
As I was processing the images later, it occurred to me that all of them required focus stacking. Literally every single one. And this is very common for me when photographing wildflowers. I don’t need focus stacking often in other seasons, but in spring I use this technique all the time. It’s just difficult to get everything in focus with one frame when photographing wildflowers. I’m frequently picking out a particularly dense patch of flowers, and using a telephoto lens to emphasize patterns and visually compress the space, making the flowers look closer together. Even with careful focusing and f/22 it’s impossible to get everything in focus with a long lens raking across a field of flowers like that. But even with wide-angle lenses it’s sometimes difficult to get everything in focus with one frame, because I’m getting really close to the foreground flowers, so there’s a tremendous amount of depth.
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by Michael Frye | Apr 3, 2016 | Light and Weather, Yosemite Photo Conditions
Rainbow, mist, and Yosemite Falls, March 14th
I recently wrote about photographing a clearing storm from the Four-Mile Trail, but that was actually my second journey up that trail last month. The first time was a week earlier, on March 14th, as another rainstorm cleared early in the morning. At that time I hadn’t been up the Four-Mile Trail in several years, but I remembered that you could see some great views of Yosemite Falls from the trail, and the unusually high early-spring water levels in falls made it seem worth trying.
I had a vague memory of finding some good views of the falls that weren’t very far up the trail, but apparently my memory was faulty, as all the lower views were partially obscured by trees. I found a decent view about 600 feet above the valley floor, but kept going up and up the switchbacks until I reached some better spots. On the way I also saw misty scenes looking west toward Cathedral Rocks and El Capitan, which I had to photograph, giving me a convenient excuse to stop and rest:
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