by Michael Frye | Oct 13, 2013 | Photography Tips
Autumn aspens, Conway Summit, Inyo NF, CA, USA
Here are two photographs I made last week near Conway Summit on the eastern side of the Sierra. The first one, above, is from Tuesday afternoon, with soft backlight filtering through thin clouds and making the leaves glow. The second image, below, was made Wednesday morning under overcast skies as the snow started to fall. I used a fast shutter speed (1/90th sec.) to freeze the motion of the snowflakes, which created a faint white dot pattern across the frame.
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by Michael Frye | Oct 11, 2013 | Yosemite Photo Conditions
Bands of sunlight on Laurel Mountain from Convict Lake, Inyo NF, CA, USA
On Tuesday Claudia and I headed over Tioga Pass to Lee Vining. Forecasts called for snow above 7000 feet on Wednesday, so we were trying to get over the pass before the road closed to photograph the snowstorm and its aftermath.
And snow it did. Five or six inches fell at higher elevations on Wednesday, covering the mountains, pines, and aspens. I was like a kid in a candy store; I saw photographs everywhere I looked. I haven’t had time to process or post anything until now because I’ve been spending every spare minute behind the camera, but here are two images from Thursday morning at Convict Lake, and I’ll post more when I get the chance.
Tioga Pass reopened today, so we’re headed back home to Mariposa for a couple of days, but so far the cold and snow haven’t adversely affected the aspens. While the color at some of the higher elevations areas is past peak, many of my favorite lower-elevation areas like June Lake Loop and Lee Vining Canyon still have a mix of green and yellow leaves, so it looks like the color should last a while longer.
— Michael Frye
Related Post: Signs of Autumn
Autumn color along the shore of Convict Lake, Inyo NF, CA, USA
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by Michael Frye | Sep 25, 2013 | Yosemite Photo Conditions
Giant sequoias in fog, Mariposa Grove, Yosemite NP, CA, USA
I thought this was an interesting story in the L.A. Times about efforts to save Yosemite’s giant sequoia trees and old-growth sugar pines during the Rim Fire. Sounds like it was quite dramatic (though perhaps the writer played up the drama a bit).
Today the fire is almost out. They’re still listing it as only 84% contained, but that’s because they’re letting it burn slowly into remote and rocky areas east of Cherry Lake and north of Hetch Hetchy. Elsewhere the fire is smoldering here and there within the containment lines, but rain and snow last Saturday doused a lot of that activity, and smoke from the fire has diminished greatly. All the main roads inside and outside the park are now open.
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by Michael Frye | Sep 24, 2013 | Yosemite Photo Conditions
Reflections in North Lake on Sunday morning after a dusting of snow, Inyo NF, CA, USA
Last weekend my wife Claudia and I made our annual pilgrimage to the Millpond Music Festival in Bishop, over on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. We had a wonderful time, as usual; this is either the 14th or 15th consecutive year we’ve attended this event, so clearly we love it.
On the drive over we could see some color changes starting to appear in the highest aspen groves, like where Warren Canyon meets Lee Vining Canyon along Highway 120 east of Tioga Pass, and on the higher reaches of the Parker Bench, above the northern end of the June Lake Loop just southeast of Parker Lake.
Saturday evening it sprinkled in Bishop, and further north several inches of snow fell on Tioga Pass and Sonora Pass, temporarily closing both routes. I knew that the nearby upper reaches of Bishop Creek Canyon would likely have a dusting of snow in the morning, and I’d heard that the colors were already changing up there, so I rose early Sunday and drove up to North Lake before sunrise.
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by Michael Frye | Sep 17, 2013 | Announcements
Half Dome, Sentinel Rock, and Bridalveil Fall after a snowstorm, Yosemite NP, February 9th, 2009
Clearing Winter Storm is my favorite Ansel Adams photograph. To me it captures the majesty and grandeur of Yosemite Valley like no other image.
(I wish I could show the photograph here, but I’d violate copyright laws in doing so. You can click this link to see Clearing Winter Storm. The image shown here is one of mine that was made on February 9th, 2009.)
The funny thing is, no one knows when this famous image was made. Ansel had a notoriously bad memory for dates, and various years have been given by him and others for this photograph, ranging from 1935 to 1944. In his book Examples, Ansel wrote that the image “came about on an early December day,” but again, his memory was not particularly reliable about such things.
A couple of years ago, Don Olson contacted me about dating this photograph. Don is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Texas State University, and he and his colleagues have used the position of the moon to find the precise date and time that Ansel captured two images: Moon and Half Dome, and Autumn Moon, the High Sierra From Glacier Point.
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