Announcements
by Michael Frye | Apr 16, 2013 | Announcements
El Capitan after an autumn snowstorm from El Capitan Meadow, Yosemite NP, CA, USA
I know many of my readers have a close connection with Yosemite, so I thought you would want to know about some proposed changes to El Capitan Meadow. In most of the proposed alternatives for the park service’s Merced River Draft Management plan, fencing and signs would be installed to keep visitors from trampling the meadow.
John Sexton wrote a thoughtful post on Facebook about this issue, which I recommend reading. El Capitan Meadow has long been a favorite spot for photographers in Yosemite. Ansel Adams made his Oak Tree, Snowstorm photograph from there. Galen Rowell captured one of his most famous images, Clearing Storm Over El Capitan, from this meadow. John posted one of his wonderful photographs on his Facebook post. El Capitan Meadow is certainly a favorite place of mine too, and I’ve made many images there, including all the ones included here.
I know that the park service has a difficult job. They have to balance preservation with public use and enjoyment of the parks. Meadows are fragile, and are easily damaged by too much foot traffic, and the easiest way to prevent that damage is to fence off the meadow.
On the other hand, what makes Yosemite Valley so wonderful, so extraordinary, is the juxtaposition of soaring cliffs with the serenity of the meadows and meandering river on the valley floor. There are other places with magnificent cliffs. There is no other place with an idyllic valley surrounded by such high walls. The quintessential Yosemite experience is to wander out into a meadow, stare up at the cliffs and waterfalls, and soak up the tranquility. I would hate to see that experience taken away. There has to be a better solution than fencing and “Keep Out” signs for the valley’s meadows.
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by Michael Frye | Mar 7, 2013 | Announcements
It’s finally here! My wife Claudia did a wonderful job of editing Yosemite Meditations for Women, finding inspiring quotes from writers like Lorraine Anderson, Susan Zwinger, J.K. Rowling, Diane Ackerman, Pam Houston and many others, and pairing the quotes with my photographs. I’ve included some sample pages below.
If you order directly from us through the “Add to Cart” button below, Claudia and I will both sign the book(s). Or you can order directly from the publisher, the non-profit Yosemite Conservancy, or from Amazon.
We hope you like the book, and really appreciate your support!
— Michael Frye
Yosemite Meditations for Women
Hardcover with jacket; approx. 6×5 inches; 96 pages
9.95
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by Michael Frye | Jan 14, 2013 | Announcements, Workshops
Aspen grove, late afternoon, Lee Vining Canyon, Inyo NF, CA, USA
If you’re not subscribed to my email list you missed the announcement of my Eastern Sierra Fall Color: Composition and Creativity Among the Aspens workshop next fall. We had such a great response to this offering that it sold out the first day! But the good news is that we decided to run a second edition of this course from October 20-23, 2013, and there are still a few spots available.
I made the accompanying photograph during the first edition of this workshop last October. We photographed this aspen grove late in the afternoon as the lowering sun backlit the yellow leaves. This was my favorite image from that spot, but I saw many interesting, unusual compositions by everyone else that afternoon, both on the back of people’s cameras and later during image reviews. You can see some of the participant’s photographs in this Flickr group.
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by Michael Frye | Jan 13, 2013 | Announcements
Yosemite Meditations for Women
My wife Claudia and I just got an advance copy of our new book, Yosemite Meditations for Women, published by Yosemite Conservancy. Claudia did a wonderful job of editing this — finding quotes, pairing them with photographs, and getting permissions from the authors. I’ll let you know when it’s available — it should be sometime next month!
— Michael Frye
by Michael Frye | Jan 5, 2013 | Announcements
The polls are closed, the votes are in, and here are my top ten photographs of 2012!
I thought last year’s response was amazing, but this year it was even better: 240 people looked through my initial selection of 50 images and posted their picks here on the blog, Facebook, Google+, and by email. A big thank you to all of you who took the time to look through these photographs and voice your opinions — I really appreciate your help with this! And thanks also to my wonderful assistant Claudia who tallied the votes.
To express our gratitude to all of you we’ve decided to give away another print to one of the voters. We assigned each person who voted a number, and used a random number generator to pick the recipient. And the winner is… Frank Field! Frank will receive a signed, numbered, matted 16×20 print of his choice from among the 50 original selections. Congratulations Frank!
So here’s the list of the ten images which received the most picks, and the number of votes they each received:
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by Michael Frye | Jan 1, 2013 | Announcements
Happy New Year! To all my readers, thank you so much for your readership, support, and participation during the last year. I really appreciate how so many of you have taken time out of your busy schedules to read this blog and write thoughtful comments. I look forward to another great year in 2013!
It’s becoming a New Year’s tradition on this blog to pick out my best images from the past year, and once again I’m inviting you to help make these difficult choices. I’ve posted 50 of my best photographs from 2012 below, and after you look through these please post a comment listing your ten favorites. (Click on the images to see them larger.) Once the votes are in I’ll put the top ten or twelve on this blog, and submit the finalists to Jim Goldstein’s blog project, where he’ll be showcasing the best images of the year from over 100 photographers. The voting deadline is Friday, January 4th at midnight Pacific time.
As always I reserve the right to override the votes if one of my favorites gets panned. But I have yet to exercise this power — the last two years I thought your choices were so good I just went with the votes.
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