Year of Yosemite (YOY) – Day 162 (Sentinel Dome – El Capitan)

Jeff

El Capitan is well within view from the top of Sentinel Dome

El Capitan is well within view from the top of Sentinel Dome

Moving up onto the very top of Sentinel Dome and looking west, El Capitan stood out among all of the other mountains. This colossus of the valley asserts itself into the minds of Yosemite visitors as well as the camera rolls of numerous smart phones.

Also shown is the topography of the distant hills as well as the dome. Sentinel Dome’s colors and textures where on display as it drops off into the wooded hillside below.

 
Do you have a question about our visit to Yosemite? Ask it in the comment section.

 

JBRish.com originally published this post
*All photographs Copyright by Jeffrey B. Ross with all rights reserved.

 
See previous Year of Yosemite (YOY) posts HERE. If you want to read the introduction to the YOY series, CLICK HERE.

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Meta Data – Day 162 YOY – Year of Yosemite

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Capture time: 11:55:12 AM
Capture date: June 9, 2016
Exposure: 1/60 sec @ f/18
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STATUS QUOtes — 20161218

Jeff

Today’s STATUS QUOtes

“Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.” — Plutarch

“I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion-and where it isn’t, that’s where my work lies.” — Ram Dass

“For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, ‘It might have been’.” — John Greenleaf Whittier

“I tried being normal once. It was the worst five minutes of my life.” — Georgia Cates, Shallow

 

JBRish.com originally published this post

See previous STATUS QUOtes HERE

Year of Yosemite (YOY) – Day 161 (Sentinel Dome – A View of Yosemite Falls)

Jeff

Yosemite Falls viewed from the top of Sentinel Dome

Yosemite Falls viewed from the top of Sentinel Dome

It felt like I was standing on top of the world. Obviously I knew intellectually there were many places that were higher, but when walking across the top of Sentinel Dome, which was quite wide, it seemed as though I could see most of Yosemite’s major sights.

The picture above is a distant view of Yosemite Falls. Because of the height of the dome and the distance, a larger portion of Yosemite Falls is visible and it was splendid. The torrents of water spread out as they fell into the basin and then traveled down the crevice into the rest of the valley.

 
Do you have a question about our visit to Yosemite? Ask it in the comment section.

 

JBRish.com originally published this post
*All photographs Copyright by Jeffrey B. Ross with all rights reserved.

 
See previous Year of Yosemite (YOY) posts HERE. If you want to read the introduction to the YOY series, CLICK HERE.

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Meta Data – Day 161 YOY – Year of Yosemite

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Capture date: June 9, 2016
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STATUS QUOtes — 20161217

Jeff

Today’s STATUS QUOtes

“Happiness held is the seed; happiness shared is the flower.” — Unknown

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” — George Bernard Shaw

“All my life, my heart has yearned for a thing I cannot name.” — Andre Breton

“There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.” — Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

 

JBRish.com originally published this post

See previous STATUS QUOtes HERE

Year of Yosemite (YOY) – Day 160 (Sentinel Dome Trail – How Far Away?)

Jeff

Below is the photo from yesterday’s post. This was the top of Sentinel Dome as seen from a distance.

A view of the top of the dome from the trail

A view of the top of the dome from the trail

Since I had my Canon SX50 HS bridge camera which has quite a reach, I decided to take a picture of a person standing on top of Sentinel Dome from the place in the trail where the above photograph was captured. I could see people up there, but I could only recognize them as abstract shapes.

This is a picture taken with the Canon SX50 HS super zoom camera from basically the same place as the picture above.

A hiker standing on top of Sentinel Dome stops to take a picture

A hiker standing on top of Sentinel Dome stops to take a picture

I was gratified when reviewing this picture that it captured as much of the detail as I had hoped. We were very far away and only the zoom lens made this a possibility. Thank goodness for image stabilized cameras!

 
Do you have a question about our visit to Yosemite? Ask it in the comment section.

 

JBRish.com originally published this post
*All photographs Copyright by Jeffrey B. Ross with all rights reserved.

 
See previous Year of Yosemite (YOY) posts HERE. If you want to read the introduction to the YOY series, CLICK HERE.

***********************************

Meta Data – Day 160 YOY – Year of Yosemite

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Capture time: 11:23:08 AM
Capture date: June 9, 2016
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Canon PowerShot SX50 HS

 

STATUS QUOtes — 20161216

Jeff

Today’s STATUS QUOtes

“Live one day at a time and make it a masterpiece.” — Dale West

“When a good man is hurt, all who would be called good must suffer with him.” — Euripides

“Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention.” — Jim Rohn

“I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: ‘O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.’ And God granted it.” — Voltaire

 

JBRish.com originally published this post

See previous STATUS QUOtes HERE

In the Desert, Its Beginning to Look Like…

Jeff

As most people can imagine, there isn’t too much in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona that would innately remind the casual visitor of the overall Christmas/Winter Holiday Season. It does get cool during the late fall and winter evenings. We hit temperatures in the forties many nights during the end of November and through December. We can also get more rain this time of year, but generally not as much as January.

So residents of the Phoenix area use their creativity to devise ways of decorating for the winter holidays.

Here is a photograph of a variegated agave we had in our landscape at one time. The plant has thick leaves with sharp edges and each leaf has a sharp point on the end. That is how it survives in the desert. Without all those sharp edges and points, it would be eaten to death by rabbits, javelinas and other denizens.

Agave with sharp edges and points

People have discovered that those sharp tips at the ends of the leaves have another good use!

Gold colored Christmas balls create a crown-like appearance on top of this agave in the front yard. They play well against the green of the agave and the rest of the residential desert landscape.

Gold balls on a green agave

If solid gold is too regal for you and you want more of a standard Christmas color scheme, a variety of colors would work just as well.
Colorful variety of Christmas balls on an agave

Colorful variety of Christmas balls on an agave

The increased color palette (above) plays well with other holiday ornaments such as the foreground cactus with Santa hat.

Instead of plain poinsettias, how about faux poinsettia leaves attached to the branches of the Ocotillo?

Ocotillo with Poinsettia leaves

(BTW – If you want to see what an Ocotillo looks like during the active growing season with leaves and without fake ornamentation, click HERE)

For a more subtle spot decoration, smaller colorful Christmas balls can be uniquely placed in planters.

Planter with small, colorful Christmas balls


Yes, it really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas in the Sonoran Desert in 2016!

Year of Yosemite (YOY) – Day 159 (Sentinel Dome Trail – A View of the Goal)

Jeff

A view of the top of the dome from the trail

A view of the top of the dome from the trail

As we worked our way up the trail, we arrived at a point where the tree line thinned and because of the altitude the trees that remained were not quite as tall in many places. As we rounded part of the trail, the top of Sentinel Dome came into view. While Yosemite has many domes, Sentinel Dome had a very round shape while others, like Lembert Dome, were only round-ish.

That rounded mound of Sentinel Dome looks relatively close in this photo, but was a fair distance off and of course hikers need to stay on the designated trail which wasn’t a straight line forward, but circuitous. Tomorrow’s post will proffer some indication of just how far away we were when I took this photograph.

 
Do you have a question about our visit to Yosemite? Ask it in the comment section.

 

JBRish.com originally published this post
*All photographs Copyright by Jeffrey B. Ross with all rights reserved.

 
See previous Year of Yosemite (YOY) posts HERE. If you want to read the introduction to the YOY series, CLICK HERE.

***********************************

Meta Data – Day 159 YOY – Year of Yosemite

File Name: 0344.NEF
Capture time: 11:26:24 AM
Capture date: June 9, 2016
Exposure: 1/80 sec @ f/18
Focal Length: 18mm
ISO 100
Nikon D3300

 

STATUS QUOtes — 20161215

Jeff

Today’s STATUS QUOtes

“When an elephant is in trouble even a frog will kick him.” — Hindu Proverb

“I feel I can talk with more authority, especially when I say, ‘I don’t know.’” — Peter Ustinov

“A belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses; it is an idea that possesses the mind.” — Robert Oxton Bolt

“The one prediction that never comes true is, “You’ll thank me for telling you this.” — Judith Martin

 

JBRish.com originally published this post

See previous STATUS QUOtes HERE