Sequoia + Yosemite National Park
I have nothing against the conventional Thanksgiving festivities that the common-folk of the land usually busy themselves with around late-November.
It’s an excuse to gather the extended family together, share tales of ‘yore over cranberry sauce and brown-sugared marshmallows (you and I both know there’s no sweet potatoes underneath that mound of sugar). And then perhaps catch a matinee at the local “movie house” (we don’t have the heart to tell my dad that that’s not what the kids are calling it these days). This year though, my parents and I thought that since the other pieces to the familial pie were staying in their respective regions of AZ and KS, we should venture out of our SLC cocoon and wend our way to a National Park. More specifically, Sequoia NP.
Fourteen hours (years) of driving always seems like a doable distance until you’re 11 hours in and you’re wondering why you can’t feel your hind-parts—a late-onset symptom of †TB.
But eventually we made it to the comfort of our Comfortable Inn and got some ††sleep.
Gladly the next morning held better prospects than the night previous and we began our winding journey into the park.
† Tired Bum™
†† That is, if you weren’t sleeping on the roll-away mattress from hell, which conveniently, I was.
↓ My new 70-200mm f/4L IS was churning out some good pics, so I tried it out on portraits.
↓ I’ve also been learning more about lighting and how to adjust for darker scenes with bright highlights, but the forest and the sun were giving me a run for my money and it was difficult to find a sweet spot where the blacks weren’t crushed and the highlights weren’t too hot. Life is hard.
[EDIT—1.09.15]—It has come to my attention that for the past year I have neglected to change my Canon picture style from the default (ya, frustrating, no?) setting of Standard (3,0,0,0) which does not record a very wide dynamic range like this video demonstrates, hence the crushed blacks and hot whites. I have since repented of my ways and employ a user-defined style of Faithful (-4,-4,-2,0). This will hopefully deter any future sleepless nights spent staring at the ceiling wondering why I can’t “just get the lighting right.”
↓ Love how the afternoon light hit this lone tree. (click to fit within screen)
↑ My first attempt at an HDR composite. Still isn’t quite the look I’m going for but hey, nobody’s perfect (and other platitudes).
↑ Pic of the Post: 1/20, f/9, ISO 250, 70mm (70-200mm f/4L IS)
↑ Did I mention that these trees are massive?
↑↓ Moro Rock looks over the San Joaquin Valley, and the hills (and pollution—go us humans) make for some neat shadows just before sunset. After we hiked up the 400 steps, I staked out some personal space at the top and watched the sun dip below the skyline. My panorama didn’t really turn out, but there are worse things in life.
↓ We had hiked throughout the afternoon, so come nightfall we were still 1.5 miles away from our car. So, we meandered along the road, swallowed up by the towering trees, and felt our significance in the universe diminish with each passing minute. No doubt it was God giving us a good reminder of what’s important (and who).
↑ I love this one too.
↓ After a couple days we got sick [literally] of driving up the windy road to the park every morning/night. So we decided to head on north and check out Yosemite and see what they know.
↓ Apparently they know about big things too. (i.e. El Capitan and Half Dome) The overcast skies were a nice change to the bright sun of Sequoia, but it’s tough to decide which I loathe more: blown-out highlights, or shapeless grey skies.
Things were going well until we remembered we had to still drive back to SLC.
Location: ★★★★½☆
Photography Opportunities: ★★★★☆
Overall Adventure: 8/10
/// FOLLOW ALONG WITH MY OTHER INTERESTS
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