When you drive into Yosemite Valley from CA-120 there's a pullout that has some nice views of El Capital (on the left) and Half Dome. They're pretty far away so I had to get out my 70-300mm lens to get a good shot, but since it's so far away, the shots always appear somewhat foggy like this one. The tunnel view is a much better view, but this turn-out is a place I always pull over at! I was walking around with both my D300s (with the 17-35mm lens) and my D80 (with the 70-300mm lens) and everyone kept thinking I was a *real* photographer!

The group of 5 of us drove up to Yosemite on Friday morning. We got a little bit of a late start and stopped for lunch so we didn't get to Yosemite until about 3-3:30 and then didn't have the campsite setup until about 5. Here we are sitting at one of the turnouts on the way down into the valley from CA-120. I thought about asking someone to take the picture but then I remembered I was holding my tripod and just set it up and took one with the 20 second timer!

A little bit past the previous turn-out is another one, which gives you views of Bridalveil Falls and the Merced River. I always pull over here too!

And again, just past the last 2 turn-outs on CA-120 is a small parking lot for Cascade Falls (they've actually expanded it a bit since I've last been there). I think this spot is absolutely awesome and in May the falls are gushing like no-other. I experimented with various different exposure times and this was my favorite! I also tried to not do an HDR, but since the water was gushing so fast the shutter had to be fast and the rocks/trees came out really dark. This is the non-HDR version.

I absolutely love Cascade falls. I tried different focal lengths and different shutter times and spent a while here. I experimented with various different exposure times and this was my favorite! I also tried to not do an HDR, but since the water was gushing so fast the shutter had to be fast and the rocks/trees came out really dark. This is the HDR version, although I like the previous photo a little better because it's not zoomed in as far -- this seems a little too close for me.

We pulled over at the Yosemite Falls turn-out (on the way into the valley) and there's a little boardwalk you can walk across to see the falls. When the boardwalk ends oyu can walk down to the edge of the river here and I saw some reflections of the trees in the water with Upper Yosemite Falls peaking through -- I couldn't help myself!

Zack brought out his "Field Notes" to make sure he remembers what he's seeing on our trip

Half Dome, seen from the beginning of the Mirror Lake trail

Every time I walk to Mirror Lake I stop at this fallen tree trunk. I don't know why but I love to photograph dead trees. I can never seem to get this shot right though - I'm not too happy with how this came out -- the colors are weird, it's a bit dark, and there's too much going on in the background.

We got to Mirror Lake at abotu 5pm and the sun was starting to set. It made a really nice line of shadow across the mountains/trees but the lighting was pretty difficult still (not even). There were a couple other photographers there and we had to fight for tripod space. All of them were shooting multiple exposures and although I really *didn't* want to do an HDR here, the lighting was just too varied (too dark in the trees/water) and I found myself really attracted to the HDR versions. Here you can see Mt. Watkins reflected in Mirror Lake. It's getting harder and harder to get the reflections in this lake because it's losing its mirror effect. In the old days the park rangers / hotels used to dredge this lake for Ice (for the hotels) and salt (for the roads) and that helped create the reflection effect. However, now the park wants to stay "all natural" and dredging has stopped, which has decreased its reflectivity. I had to pull out the polarizer to get better reflections (note: if you go here, I highly highly recommend a polarizer. It really really helped increase the awesome reflection).

We got to Mirror Lake at abotu 5pm and the sun was starting to set. It made a really nice line of shadow across the mountains/trees but the lighting was pretty difficult still (not even). There were a couple other photographers there and we had to fight for tripod space. All of them were shooting multiple exposures and although I really *didn't* want to do an HDR here, the lighting was just too varied (too dark in the trees/water) and I found myself really attracted to the HDR versions. Here you can see Mt. Watkins reflected in Mirror Lake. It's getting harder and harder to get the reflections in this lake because it's losing its mirror effect. In the old days the park rangers / hotels used to dredge this lake for Ice (for the hotels) and salt (for the roads) and that helped create the reflection effect. However, now the park wants to stay "all natural" and dredging has stopped, which has decreased its reflectivity. I had to pull out the polarizer to get better reflections (note: if you go here, I highly highly recommend a polarizer. It really really helped increase the awesome reflection). I can't decide which version of Mirror Lake I like best. I like this one because the little rock at the bottom adds to the photo, but Mt. Watkins is smaller in it and doesn't fill the frame as much. Ahhh! Can't decide!

This was my 5th year coming to Yosemite and I've never made it to the "Tunnel View" made famous by Ansel Adams. At about 7pm we drove up Tunnel View hoping to get a sunset shot of El Capitan, Half Dome, and Bridalveil Falls. Unfortunately, the sun/clouds didn't play nice and it just looked kinda gloomy (I was really hoping for a nice red reflection off the rocks). Instead, I brought out the D80 with the 70-300mm lens on it and shot this photo of Half Dome and Bridalveil Falls. I was actually surprised by the fact that 70mm (on a DX digital sensor) was too long of a focal length for this scene. Even when I kept backing up and backup up I could *not* get El Capitan, Half Dome, and Bridalveil in the scene. My 35mm lens wasn't quite long enough for what I wanted and I no longer have a lens that goes between 35mm and 70mm. 45mm would have been perfect for this scene

This was my 5th year coming to Yosemite and I've never made it to the "Tunnel View" made famous by Ansel Adams. At about 7pm we drove up Tunnel View hoping to get a sunset shot of El Capitan, Half Dome, and Bridalveil Falls. Unfortunately, the sun/clouds didn't play nice and it just looked kinda gloomy (I was really hoping for a nice red reflection off the rocks). Instead, I brought out the D80 with the 70-300mm lens on it and shot this photo of Half Dome and Bridalveil Falls. I was actually surprised by the fact that 70mm (on a DX digital sensor) was too long of a focal length for this scene. Even when I kept backing up and backup up I could *not* get El Capitan, Half Dome, and Bridalveil in the scene. My 35mm lens wasn't quite long enough for what I wanted and I no longer have a lens that goes between 35mm and 70mm. 45mm would have been perfect for this scene

After finally making my first trip to Tunnel View the night before my friend Zack and I woke up before 5am to try to get sunrise at Tunnel View. We got there by 5:20 (sunrise wasn't until ~5:50) but we didn't get the light we wanted again. Instead, the sky was just completely blown out. There was one guy who had 3 graduated neutral density filters on and he said the sky was *still* blown out! There were some neat cloud/fog formations though in the valley. It was a gorgeous sunrise!