Yosemite and More

 I went to Yosemite the other day. It snowed a little before I got there and then rained a little turning the snow to ice. I was hoping for some fog in the valley and wasn't disappointed. It was kinda cold. This is what greeted me when I first arrived at Tunnel View Literally 10 minutes later the fog had changed. Not wanting to miss too much of the fog in the Valley I left and headed down the hill The fog in the Valley shifted from place to place. This is an interesting shot. My polarizing filter cleared up the Merced River reflection but not the fog or haze above it. As the sun hit and warmed up the Swinging bridge it gave up it's moisture  Looking the other way I saw this. Walking along the Merced River I notice this ferocious alligator about to devour a helpless pinecone. While I had hoped my depth of field was better I was still intrigued by the juxtaposition of the old leaf with a new bud along the same branch. The clouds came in and obscured much of the higher elevation.

I recently took part in a Tundra Swan tour sponsored by the  California Department of Fish and Wildlife in the Marysville area north of Sacramento. The swans over-winter on the rice fields that are flooded after the harvest to break down the rice stubble and provide habitat and food for numerous water fowl. More tours are schedules for Dec. and Jan. Since this was an organized tour my options were somewhat limited. When you have 11 cars in a caravan you can't just stop anywhere. In addition, some of the  participants didn't seem to understand that noisily closing car doors and quickly approaching the waters edge spooks the birds and they either take flight or swim away. On the way and making sure I found our starting location at the Mathews Rice Dryers I came upon this scene.  Notice the Swans are only in the middle rice paddie. Different depths attract different  birds and they flood the fields accordingly. In the background you see the Sutter Buttes. The smallest mountain ran

I recently went to the Marysville California area to take a Tundra Swan tour offered by the California State Department of Fish and Wildlife. The tour  started at the Mathews Rice Dryer parking lot.  I'm currently working on several projects so the Swan Tour will have to  wait a bit. It was indeed worth the drive. I took my old Canon 50D with me. I hadn't used it in quite a while and wasn't sure how reliable it would be since it met a Pacific Ocean wave. Turns  out it worked just fine. I put a telephoto on my 70D and a 24-105mm on the 50D just in case I found something up close that I didn't need the telephoto for. Well I did. While waiting for everyone to show up I noticed the wonderful lines of the silos. I'm sure some of the people coming for the Swans must have thought this guy taking pictures of silos was in the wrong group. Anyway here are some of those photos. Here's the first view that got my attention. Then I went to the far side. One of the more intere

Last week they predicted snow in Yosemite Valley and that it would end about 10am with variable cloudiness after that. The first snow of the season was just too tempting and I headed up, getting there about 10am. On the way up I stopped along the Merced River several times. While overcast there wasn't any rain and I wondered what would happen in Yosemite. As you can see the colors along the river were pretty good. As I got to the park it wasn't snowing, but a good layer of snow had already fallen. This is one of the first indications that it was going to be a very good day to photograph.  Yes, it was going to be a very good day. Then it started to snow a little, you might be able to see some snow blur on the lower portion of the photograph. Then it started a little harder. I was worried because I'd left the rain cover for my camera at home and I'm a little paranoid about wet cameras. While taking this one a young lady near me remarked how special it was to visit Yosemit

 A couple of fellow photographers invited me to an early morning  photoshoot of something I'd never noticed before. Spider webs covering large areas of pasture grass. This pre-sunrise photograph is just an inkling of what was to come When sunrise came it was a pretty good one. This is a little darker than  actuality but I liked the effect. Then the magic started and I understood what they were talking about. You have to admit this is pretty cool.  I changed this to Black and White to emphasis the webs themselves. Unfortunately by doing so you miss the wonderful morning colors. Sorry. Looking behind the last shot I caught the moon next to a very well webbed stalk. Once again a little darker than reality Not much later I spotted this jet crossing the sky. I kept both eyes open, one through the lens following the jet, the other waiting for some birds to cross paths with it. This one is not Photo Shopped except for a couple of wayward geese I removed at the  the upper right. You see th

 As you probably know California has had a lot of trouble with wildfires. I went to Yosemite when it was pretty well smoked in as I show in the first photo.  This necessitated that most of my photography would be more closeup than landscape. While I was walking along the trail above I walked right past  these fungi because I was too busy looking up. Coming back I spent a little more time looking down. As I was getting ready to make one last trip around the valley the sun was setting. The smoke is always more intense the lower the sun. Go, See, Enjoy, Stay Safe and Photograph Dave