FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15TH

FRIDAY IN THE VALLEY ….

We were up and out the door at 0645 to catch gold light reflected in the Merced from the sun reflecting off of El Capitan. It was a good location but treacherous under foot due to the mild winter. What snow was there had thawed and then frozen for several days. With my rubber boots it was like skating at times, and not on a level playing field. I took a fall and ended up with a sprained wrist only. Then later during the day I took another tumble but with no ill effects. All of it made me very leary about walking on the snow even with my leather boots on that have a decent tread. Another morning
location was of the water falls along the outflow of Bridal Veil Falls. We wanted to get the flowing water with out sunlight playing on the falls. Sunlight playing through the trees onto a falls is an exposure nightmare with the high contrast of bright sunlight, dark rocks, and trying to get the water to show the correct texture.

We took a break from 1200 to1400 after a late breakfast. I used the time to pick out some photos for yesterday's entry. My friend Lin, got in about 1300. Her Mom was doing very well yesterday afternoon so LIn decided to come up after all. We were off photographing by 1400.  She had gotten off from Falbrook about 0400 and the drive had gone smoothly. She did get caught in the
morning commute traffic in Bakersfield. She had a little time to organize her camera gear, and dress for the cool weather.

The afternoon was exploring some more photo spots, Actually Mark had them pretty well planned out, this being about his tenth trip to Yosemite leading trips. There was more walking on old compacted snow, but the photo ops were good. We took pictures of Half Dome from Sentinel Bridge, and then down in a meadow  east of Camp Curry. Then there was a third site to capture sunset
light on Half Dome with colors reflected in the Merced.

After sunset it was time to return to the Yosemite Lodge for dinner, Tonight we also pursued night sky photographhy for the second day, We went to Tunnel View, and then on a bit of a whim Yosemite Chapel . Tunnel View was a bit frustrating due to all of the planes flying over Canyon. The attempts at night photography at the chapel were thwarted many times by the cars driving by.  Still there was
some breaks in traffic both car and airplanes, that allowed for some fun.

Half Dome

Half Dome from Sentinel Bridge

Three Brothers & Reflection

Night Sky from Tunnel View

Orion over Yosemite Chapel

Starry Sky, Tunnel View

Bridal Veil Creek 1

Yosemite Chapel and Night Sky

Ice Formation

Bridal Veil Creek 2

Bridal Veil Creek 3

We called it a night about 2300 when we returned to the Lodge. I downloaded the day's images, took a shower and headed for bed. Lights went out at 0030!!

TO YOSEMITE - FEBRUARY 14

It has been a long day and this is going to be a very short entry.

Last night I drove to Fallbrook to spend the night with Lin before heading out this morning. Lin had to cancel due to her Mom taking a fall yesterday afternoon and getting quite "beat up" as a result. They had appointments with their chiropractor who did miracles in getting things realigned. Lin held out hope this morning that she might be able to join us in a day or two. Well, she will be joining us tomorrow!!

It was an eight and a half hour drive to the park, with a brief stop in Fresno to pick up one of the photographers, John, and have a short lunch before heading for Yosemite via State Rte 41 through Oakhurst and Wawona. At Fish Camp we picked up the fourth photographer, Keith who was waiting for us at Tenaya Lodge.

Once into the Park we headed for Bridal Veil Falls to get a spray rainbow in the late afternoon. We were very successful, and spent a good hour photographing the phenomenon. Then we back tracked to Tunnel View for sunset. As there were no clouds in the sky, it was not spectacular, but we had a  good time anyway. After checking in, getting our rooms and a quick dinner we were off for night sky photography. It was really fun, and I hope I got some good pictures. What I see on the LCD screen looks promising. We got the Milky Way and Orion over Bridal Veil Falls and the granite spires around it. Then we took an Easterly view and I have the Big Dipper over El Capitan. There were issues with planes and car traffic in the Valley but there should be something to show for the effort.

I would share pictures but it is already 1130 p.m. and I am not downloading pictures tonight. We are off to do sunrise light at 0645, so it is time to shower, and be off to bed. We should have some down time tomorrow mid-day, so I will try to get a couple of pictures ready for you then.

Thank you following my travels.

Raven Maven

Bridal Veil Falls w. Spray Bow

Tunnel View w. setting sunlight

Bridal Veil Falls, Milky Way, and Orion

Valley View with Big Dipper and more

YOSEMITE IN WINTER, A PHOTO ADVENTURE

-->

Wednesday, 13 February:

I am busy sorting and packing gear for a six day trip to Yosemite National Park starting tomorrow. I am really looking forward to visiting the park in Winter where the sole purpose of the trip is photography. 

  

Lin, Mike, and I will be driving to Fresno tomorrow morning to meet up with our leader, Mark Rasmussen of LightChase Photography. He is there right now with another group. The current forecast is for clear weather through Monday. This portends well for an opportunity to photograph Horsetail Falls. It is a small falls on the East side of El Capitan which when the setting sun light hits it, it becomes like a firefall. It is only possible to get that light during the latter part of February.

At the present time there is little to no snow in the forecast through the time we are going to be there. Even so, I am prepared with snow chains/cables for my car. I did a run through on how to attach them this morning. :-)

Here are a couple of pictures from a Spring trip in 2010----

Moonbow, Lower Yosemite Falls, 2010

cathedral Spires in Rain, 2010

El Capitan, 2010

Yosemite Falls, 2010

Fern Spring, 2010

FAREWELL TO IOWA

 Once again it was a long day of traveling. As we drove to Cedar Rapids to catch our flight to Denver, we were notified by United that there was at least an hour delay in departure. This meant that we would miss our scheduled connection in Denver. We were able to reschedule our flights with a change to American Airline that would take us to Los Angeles, and then onto San Diego. The maze of flights truly is amazing as our original flight had started in Sioux Falls and came to Cedar Rapids via Chicago. Chicago was where the weather was an issue. We arrived in SanDiego at 2230 instead of 1730.

Lin decided to spend the night as we were both pretty tired and fighting a nasty bug. After Lin left I was off to bed and slept most of the day, Tuesday. I did no unpacking, or do any computer work.

It is now Wednesday evening and I am finishing this up. It was a wonderful trip and our Iowa hosts were very generous with their time and knowledge. Stan Bousson was the expert and he does wonderful work. He volunteers his time to set up web cams, etc. for the various fish and game groups in the area. Here is the link to his website on bald eagles --

    http://www.pbase.com/sjbousson/bald_eagles

Our host Jay Brooks is a fine eagle photographer as well.  He shared some of his post processing techniques with us.

It was a great trip and I hope you enjoyed traveling along with me.

Stay tuned as I will be off to Yosemite National Park in a week for five days of winter photography in this magnificent Park.




   

DAY 3 OF EAGLES

Day 3 of Eagle Photography  >>>

Had a good night's sleep and looked forward to an afternoon of photography. The forecast was for clearing in the afternoon. Before we could go off, I had a bad case of diarrhea. Took some imoden and it seemed to take care of it. I was cautious with drink and no food until after the photography.

We went out to photograph eagles in trees before heading for Lock 14. We went South to Concord Street. We had a  couple opportunities, but the light was bad and the trees were quite thick. Out on the ice in this area were snowmobile races going on, and motorcycles races around on the ice.  These activities did not help the eagle photography.

Back at Lock 14 the photographers were lined up all along the walk area as well as photographers setting up on the rocks.  We estimate that there were about 90 photographers out there today. That is a little less than half of what they had last Sunday!!

There were more seagulls than eagles in our area. The birds seemed to be skittish about coming near the West shore. Even so I was able to get what I believe were a number of good images. The clouds came rolling in about 1500, and it socked in. We finally called it a day by 1530.

Lunch is here

On The Wing

Coming Down

Got Dinner

Coming At You

Bringing In Dinner

GROUNDHOG DAY

GROUNDHOG DAY - February 2 >>>>

Today was a day indoors, enjoying other peoples' photography.

The reason we are here is that my friend, Lin, was asked to put on two programs for the
QuadCity Camera Club today. She asked if I wished to tag along to photograph the bald eagles
in the area, and the cost would basically be our roundtrip airfare. I jumped at the opportunity.

There were several familiar faces here as several of the members had gone on the Polar Bear
Trip in November with us. It was a great opportunity to get to connect with them once again
as well.

Lin made two presentations: 1) Diving under the Ice in Antarctica, and 2) A Visit to The Galapagos
Islands. Another couple shared their passion of wildlife photography and gave a great show and
stories on how to prepare, and why. Finally Stan Bousson gave pointers on settings etc. for photographing the bald eagles. I had already gotten his notes before coming to Iowa, and am reeping the benefits of his expertise. They were all great presentations, but too much sitting.

I am looking forward to tomorrow when we will have another afternoon of shooting the eagles. There
will be a crowd at Dam 14, but hopefully we will get there early enough to get a good site along the walkway, and are able to create a comfortable working space. The forecast is promising for some sun most of the afternoon.

Immature but close to Adult

Immature

Fishing

Challenging you

Tree Landing

Successful Catch

CHASING EAGLES

Saturday, 1 February>>>

Today started cold and windy with a wind chill of -25˚F. It was quite cold if you had to stand out in the wind. I dressed warmly and had hand and toe warmers. Today I borrowed a balaklava from our hostess, and really appreciated the extra layer around the head and neck area.

Luckily the morning was spent driving to a number of places to view the eagles, and photographing mostly from the car. The birds are used to cars but are skittish if people are close by. Lin had stayed at home this morning to try to get a better handle on her cold and did get some more rest. Jay, our host, and Stan, a local nature photographer extraordinaire, took me out and lined up the car for good photo opportunities. They were very helpful with suggestions, and getting the car in good positions. I got some nice images of the birds in sunlight. We also saw a couple of trumpeter swans, a mess of mallards, several types of gulls including a Franklin gull, which is smaller than most gulls and has a black head with a very distinctive red beak.

A Tree full of Eagles

Ring-billed Gull

Franklin Gull

In the afternoon we were off to Lock and Dam 15 as we had been encouraged by what we had seen in the morning. About six of us went there, and the birds were not coming close to the "crowd"! After about 30 minutes we all headed back to Lock 14 where there were a number of birds and they are used to a crowd of photographers. (Good thing as there were about 45 photographers lined up to photograph them this afternoon.) I got a couple of photos of Canadian geese in flight as well. Regrettably the weather was changing and clouds moved in the early afternoon and the lighting became quite poor. We called it a day about 1545, about an hour before sunset as a result.

A Regal Pose

Eagle with Dinner

This is Mine!

Once we were done for the day we returned to "home", and started the downloading of images, and sharing a few tips for processing the raw images for viewing, printing, etc. Jay is very willing to share his expertise, and we really appreciate his suggestions.

Tomorrow there will be no photography as it is the day that The QuadCity Camera Club is having a Wildlife Seminar. My friend Lin Craft will be putting on two of the programs, on photographing in Antarctica, and the Galapagos Islands. Wanda and Keith Davenport, a couple we met while photographing polar bears, will put on a program on wildlife photography in North America, and then the above mentioned Stan Bousson will be giving a presentation on how to capture the eagles and other birds in flight. It will be a full day.

Backlit Trumpeter Swan

Canadian Geese Formation

Bald Eagle Fishing

Hopefully the forecast will be true for Sunday and we will have some sunshine for
a last afternoon of photography of the eagles. We will keep our fingers crossed.