“Push yourself to the edge of your limits. That’s how they expand.” — Robin Sharma
“Too many people miss the silver lining because they’re expecting gold.” — Maurice Setter
“We are far more liable to catch the vices than the virtues of our associates.” — Denis Diderot
“She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B.” — Dorothy Parker
One of a number of crowded campsites at Yosemite
Although we chose a week to visit Yosemite that we thought would have less crowds and during which many children would still be in school in many sectors of the United States, there were no available camping sites in any of the campgrounds we passed. This was Camp 4 near Yosemite Falls just one of many, and as you can see, it was crowded.
Do you have a question about our visit to Yosemite? Ask it in the comment section.
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 18 YOY – Year of Yosemite
File Name: IMG_3548.JPG
Capture time: 9:40:47 AM
Capture date: June 8, 2016
Exposure: 1/50 sec @ f/5.5
Focal Length: 23mm
ISO 80
Canon PowerShot AS590 IS (jpg only)
“We don’t have to agree on anything to be kind to one another.” — Unknown
“The world is full of magic things waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” — W.B. Yeats
“What is laid down, ordered, factual is never enough to embrace the whole truth: life always spills over the rim of every cup.” — Boris Pasternak
“Euphemisms are unpleasant truths wearing diplomatic cologne.” — Quentin Crisp
The main Hetch Hetchy Valley view seen from the Wapama Falls Trail
Hetch Hetchy Valley is a beautiful and often overlooked part of Yosemite. On this day we had overcast conditions, but the scenery was still dramatic and beautiful. While it functions as a reservoir, the trails and waterfalls provide plenty to see for those who like to explore nature and/or hike.
The National Park Service has a one page Hetch Hetchy pamphlet from which I have excerpted the paragraph below. You can find out more by clicking the link above.
Hidden in Yosemite National Park’s peaceful northwest corner, Hetch Hetchy Valley is a treasure worth visiting in all seasons. In spring, two of North America’s tallest waterfalls plummet spectacularly over thousand-foot granite cliffs. The dramatic cliffs surrounding these waterfalls add to the grandeur that John Muir compared to the more well known Yosemite Valley. In 1870, Muir called Hetch Hetchy Valley “a wonderfully exact counterpart of the great Yosemite.” In the early spring through late fall, visitors have easy access to a vast wilderness filled with high-country lakes, streams, and wildlife. A rare snowy winter day gives adventuresome visitors a chance to explore on skis or snowshoes.
Do you have a question about our visit to Yosemite? Ask it in the comment section.
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 17 YOY – Year of Yosemite
File Name: 0456.NEF
Capture time: 11:59:30 AM
Capture date: June 11, 2016
Exposure: 1/60 sec @ f/22
Focal Length: 22mm
ISO 140
Nikon D3300
“Say what you mean, but don’t say it mean.” — Andrew Wachter
“Don’t let your happiness depend on something you can lose.” — C.S. Lewis
“One can be the master of what one does, but never of what one feels.” — Gustave Flaubert
“To obtain an assured favorable response from people, it is better to offer them something for their stomachs instead of their brains.” — Albert Einstein
White wildflower (Triteleia hyacinthina) photographed along the trail at Hetch Hechy
On Saturday we anticipated that Yosemite Valley would be more crowded so we headed north to Hetch Hetchy to hike the Wapama Falls Trail. Hetch Hetchy is a man-made dam created by flooding one of Yosemite’s other pretty valleys. This was a controversial move at the time. You can read The Drowning of Hetch Hetchy—and What Was Lost to find out more (scroll down on the page).
Nevertheless, there was an abundance of wildflowers along the trail on this day and this white beauty flowering against a darkened puddle made for a very pretty shot.
Wikipedia Information about the flower:
Triteleia hyacinthina is a species of flowering plant known by the common names white brodiaea, white tripletlily, hyacinth brodiaea, and fool’s onion.
Do you have a question about our visit to Yosemite? Ask it in the comment section.
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 16 YOY – Year of Yosemite
File Name: IMG_0431.CR2
Capture time: 12:23:13 PM
Capture date: June 11, 2016
Exposure: 1/160 sec @ f6.5
Focal Length: 215mm
ISO 100
Canon PowerShot SX50 HS
“Trust not too much to an enchanting face.” — Virgil
“There is no belief, however foolish, that will not gather its faithful adherents who will defend it to the death.” — Isaac Asimov
“Since everything is in our heads, we had better not lose them.” — Coco Chanel
“Such is the supreme folly of man that he labours so as to labour no more.” — Leonardo da Vinci
As I stated or implied in my YOY (Year Of Yosemite) post Introduction, we had a grand time exploring the trails and mountains of this historic national park. When it comes to photography, I am really a fairly average amateur, but I am getting better. On this particular trip, I had three cameras with me:
My steadfast Canon PowerShot A590 IS which has been to so many places over so much time and still continues to provide faithful captures.
A PowerShot SX50HS which I use for birds, wildlife and anything that needs reach or isolation. I can easily open the aperture and isolate a subject. It has its drawbacks, but it fits into my particular work flow. I usually shoot in RAW format.
A Nikon D3300 which you can read about in my Photography Conundrum series. This provides the best overall quality among my cameras and has moderate “reach.”
When I am out and about exploring (which includes hiking and photography), I carry the photography essentials:
All of the above is contained in a belly pack and I keep my Canon PS A590 holsetered in one of the side pockets of that belly pack.
My other cameras go around my neck and I tether them to my back pack using carabiners so they don’t go bouncing all over as I climb and boulder scramble.
I don’t keep my cameras in a backpack in the event I need them in a hurry.
So… How does this all fit together?
I do wear a hat when I hike, but I removed it for the photo!
Telling the Story
I take some photographs just to convey the story of where I have been and to indicate the overall “look-and-feel” of the hike. For this, I often use the jpeg only PS A590. These are not meant to be artistic photographs or pictures that are particularly significant although every once in a while I am surprised by the job this legacy camera does.
For most scenery I use the Nikon D3300 which has a nice kit lens that is fairly sharp and provides enough framing options to deliver the compositions I usually want.
The PowerShot SX50HS has some issues such as chromatic aberration and poor redndering at high ISO so I use it for wildlife and bird photography or any other picture for which I need the long reach. I sometimes use it as a substitute for binoculars if I want to see if anyone is clinging to the side of El Capitan, for example. I know I can generally deal with some of the camera’s “problems” in Lightroom and it also delivers some very good photos at ISO 200 or lower; 400 if I want to stretch it a bit.
The visit to Yosemite was a bucket list item for me so I tried something for the first time…
I brought a computer and external hard drive with me so I could back up my photographs on a daily basis. Each evening, I took time to create three folders on the external hard drive with the date, short name to indicate what we did that day and an abbreviation for the camera used. I did this so when I imported the pictures in to my photography software (Lightroom), I could apply presets for that individual camera. That is why I keep the pictures separated by date and by which camera was used.
NOTE – It is helpful to synchronize time and date on all cameras being used so pictures can be sorted according to capture time. Truth be told, I don’t always get this done and it isn’t a monumental problem although having the ability to sort by time/date is very useful.
I then systematically remove each memory card, place it into the computers hard drive and COPY the files into the specific folder (on the external hard drive) for that camera on that day. This is done for all three cameras. I am cautious so I double check how many pictures are in the new folder and how many are on the memory card for that day. When I am satisfied that I have transferred all photographs, I move on to the next memory card.
If there is a change in venue that I think I will have trouble remembering, I find a file (picture) that was taken in the place and time when the situation changed and I rename it leaving all native metadata in place. This helps me organize my photos later when I see a long name rather than just a capture number.
Now I have copied all three memory cards to the appropriate folder on the external hard drive. Before ejecting the external drive, I then copy the three new, daily folders into a parent folder on the computer itself.
This protocol gives me three copies of each file. I do not ever erase a memory card until I have copied all files to my desktop and have backed it up on at least one other device, perhaps two.
I don’t review my pictures on a daily basis except to look at a few from each camera to make sure that the camera is working properly. Is there a spot on the lens? Is there a series of pictures out of focus; why? If the cameras are working appropriately, I wait until I get home to review my images. I very seldom delete a picture during the backup process described above. Many a mediocre photo can be rescued in Lightroom or Photoshop.
I hope you have found my hiking/exploring regimen helpful and perhaps you have garnered a worthy idea or two. If you have questions, let me know in the comment section!
