{"id":1392,"date":"2012-01-08T09:32:14","date_gmt":"2012-01-08T17:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/?p=1392"},"modified":"2012-01-23T01:18:52","modified_gmt":"2012-01-23T09:18:52","slug":"just-another-day-in-the-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/2012\/01\/just-another-day-in-the-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Another Day In The Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I started to write this post, about two weeks ago, nearly a third of winter had passed and barely a drop of rain had fallen here in California. This is troubling because if it does not rain in the low lands it is not going to be snowing in the high country. While the rain is important, its the snow pack in the higher elevations that fill our water reservoirs and keep the\u00a0perennial creeks and rivers flowing. This year it has snowed once or twice leaving behind a negligible amount of snow on the ground.<\/p>\n

The high country of the Sierra Nevada is normally unreachable by this time into winter by virtue of the hundreds of inches of snow that block roads and by the continuous storms that make snow plowing a futile effort. This year however, a new record has been set for the Tioga Road remaining open into winter. The previous record of January 1st set in 2006 has been put to rest and it has extended late into January. \u00a0This strange winter has also created an interesting and fairly unique opportunity to photograph places and events in the high country in winter normally not\u00a0accessible.<\/p>\n

\"Full

Full Moon<\/p><\/div>\n

The full moon this month fell on January 8th. \u00a0The full moon always rises as the sun is setting and this is a very nice time to add the moon to the landscape in photos. \u00a0Actually its better to make a photo with the rising moon a day or two before the moon is full due to the contrast variation between the land and moon at sunset. \u00a0On the day of the full moon, the sky and land will have darkened sufficiently such that to photograph both in a single exposure and retain detail in both the land and moon is nearly impossible. \u00a0However, the moon lags the sun by 45 to 50 minutes each day, so the day before the full moon the moon will rise about 45 minutes before sunset giving the opportunity to photograph the rising moon with sufficient light on the land as well.<\/p>\n

The other interesting fact is that in January, the full moon rises just to the right of Half Dome in Yosemite when viewed from locations near Glacier Point. \u00a0In a normal winter, reaching Glacier Point is a monumental task as one has to either ski or snow shoe in for miles. \u00a0Not something that is done very often. \u00a0However this year the roads in the high country are still open, the full moon was rising, and access to these locations was incredibly easy. \u00a0Put all three of these circumstances together and you have the possibility for some interesting photo opportunities.<\/p>\n

Knowing this, I presented the scenario to my 4 assistants two days before the full moon to hear there opinions on a one day excursion to the Yosemite High Country where we would hike in to the top of Sentinel Dome, a location west of Half Dome, like Glacier Point, but about 800 feet higher in elevation to see and photograph the rising full moon over Half Dome. \u00a0The consensus was a resounding yes! \u00a0So we started making plans for the trip, what we would need to bring, who would carry what and planned out our timetable. \u00a0We would leave on Saturday no later than 10 am, giving us enough time to reach the trail head and make the short 1.2 mile hike to the top of Sentinel Dome with enough time to set up the cameras. \u00a0Mind you, our youngest companion is only 5 years old.<\/p>\n

I planned on making a couple of panoramic photos, one using the DSLR and one using the large format camera. \u00a0So rather than having to switch out cameras on one tripod, I opted to bring two tripods. \u00a0I would carry one and my oldest assistant, 14 years old would carry the second, along with extra water and food. \u00a0My second assistant, 12 years old, would carry extra warm clothing, water and some food. \u00a0The other two assistants, kept the hike lively.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, we missed our departure deadline by one hour. \u00a0This cut into the schedule in a not so serious way as long as we did not have to make to many stops along the way…however we did, twice for bathroom breaks and once for gas. \u00a0As we made our way up the west side of the Sierra Nevada the absence of snow was very apparent and brought nothing but disappointment to my four assistants who secretly were hoping to find snow everywhere, after all it was winter. \u00a0Once we did reach an elevation of about 6000 feet we started seeing remnant ice fields from some snow storms in late autumn that have now turned into giant fields of frozen snow. \u00a0However to the occupants of a moving car, it looked white, it was on the ground, it had to be snow and the beseeching started. “Please!, Please!. Pleeeaseeeee!!….stop! we’ll do anything, Pleeaseeee!” \u00a0Icy patch after icy patch, the\u00a0crescendo of\u00a0pleading increased. \u00a0We finally reached the trail head at an elevation of about 7700 ft at around 3pm. \u00a0We still had close to one hour to reach the summit, I thought we were in good shape.<\/p>\n

As soon as the assistants saw the ice fields they rushed to them with all abandon. It only took about 4 slips of the feet out from under them to realize it really was not snow and they came back with both their heads on straight and eyes on the prize of summitting Sentinel Dome. \u00a0This ate about 30 minutes of time before we were out on the trail. \u00a0The trail to Sentinel Dome is not a difficult one. \u00a0Elevation gain is only about 350 feet and it only gets steep once we reach the final ascent on the north side of the dome. \u00a0Along the trail there are two locations where Sentinel Dome can be seen completely and it was at the first location that my my youngest assistant, hand in my hand, asks “what is that?” \u00a0I replied, “that is the mountain we are going to climb, we are going up to the top”. \u00a0Suddenly she says, “Baba, I’m scared” \u00a0All her\u00a0intrepidness seemed to vanish into thin air. \u00a0I reassured her that it would be ok. \u00a0She insisted that she did not know how to climb a mountain, but I continued to reassure here that she could hold my hand the whole way up and that we were not going to “rock climb” \u00a0Somehow I felt she really did not believe me. \u00a0Just before reaching the base of the granite dome, she started to give up out of tiredness and decided to just sit there in the middle of the trail. \u00a0After a little coaxing I manage to get her to continue. \u00a0The other assistants were already ahead of us and once she saw them ascending the dome, my little one suddenly became over exuberant and started after them.<\/p>\n

It was as if I had not existed and this mountain was nothing more than a mole hill to her. \u00a0They all charged up the dome ahead of me. \u00a0I was about 50 feet from the summit, when my second oldest came rushing back down yelling “the moon is rising, hurry take a picture!”. \u00a0It was too late of course, I had missed the rising. Rather than trying to scramble and set up the camera on the slope I\u00a0continued\u00a0to the top and once there set everything up. \u00a0I started with the large format camera while the moon was still relatively close to the horizon. \u00a0I set it up, focused, metered and determined the filtering needed to hold the sky back while still keeping detail in the trees now in the shadow of Sentinel Dome. \u00a0I planned on using back shifts to create a two frame panoramic. \u00a0With this technique, I would only need to focus once and as long as I did not move the rear standard forwards or back, focus would stay the same. \u00a0Once I finished with the larger camera, I switched to the DSLR. \u00a0I planned out a sweeping panorama using my 80-200 mm lens set at 80 mm. \u00a0Even at 80mm the angle of view was quite tight so it required three vertical passes. \u00a0I made 36\u00a0separate\u00a0exposures, twelve in three rows. \u00a0By the time I had finished all of this, the wind had\u00a0started\u00a0to pick up and with it the wind chill kicked in fiercely. \u00a0The air temperature was around 40\u00b0F and with that brisk wind, possibly 15 mph, the temperature suddenly felt like it was below freezing.<\/p>\n

\"Sentinel<\/a>

Moonrise over Half Dome<\/p><\/div>\n

My assistants started to complainof the cold and found a small impression on the dome and all huddled in it to\u00a0shield\u00a0themselves from\u00a0the\u00a0wind. \u00a0Rather than risking anyone getting really cold, I packed up and we\u00a0started\u00a0down just as the the light\u00a0was\u00a0starting to become golden in color. \u00a0I sensed that the sky was going to\u00a0ignite\u00a0with color however reason won out and we found ourselves on the trail and heading down hill. \u00a0Once below the tree line the wind was non-existent and everyone was happy again. \u00a0Just before reaching the trial head we crossed over a wooden foot bridge that spans over a small unnamed tributary creek that feeds into Sentinel Creek. \u00a0The creek is not more than about 10 feet wide and it was completely frozen over. \u00a0The creek was a ribbon of ice meandering through the trees, each cascade, with all its ripples and splashes, caught frozen in time. It\u00a0was\u00a0too much for them to bear, they just had to walk out onto it. \u00a0At first they did so with an ample amount of care, which slowly eroded away and it led them to only find themselves flat on their backs on the icy surface. \u00a0This lasted for about 5 minutes with me bellowing out loud in both laughter and admonition to come back off the ice.<\/p>\n

We all reached our vehicle in one piece and with our spirits soaring. \u00a0We made a quick trip down to Washburn Point, where I made two more photos of little Yosemite Valley under the light of the full moon and fading dusk light and then it was down to the Valley for something warm to eat before heading home.<\/p>\n

\"Washburn<\/a>

Dusk at Washburn Point<\/p><\/div>\n

On the short trip down to the Valley, we started recounting our hike and realized that my youngest assistant suddenly became the record holder in our clan as the youngest to summit Sentinel Dome, at 5 years old. \u00a0Not to be outdone, the others started to boast of\u00a0their\u00a0own records. \u00a0My next youngest holds the record of most number of times to Yosemite before age one. \u00a0He in fact visited Yosemite three times before reaching the ripe old age of one year. \u00a0Then my oldest of course holds the record for longest hike as a toddler, 4.5 miles at the age of 4 years. \u00a0My second oldest holds the record for many things in our clan none of which are for our outdoor escapades.<\/p>\n

We arrived home just over 13 hours from the time we left. \u00a0We spent about as much time at 8000 feet as we would have on any of our local outings and yet somehow it was not just another day in the park. \u00a0We accomplished something great together, as a unit, and discovered things about ourselves and shared an experience, laughter, and each other. \u00a0I think we fell in love that day, with each other, with Sentinel Dome, and with Mother Earth. \u00a0I don’t know about \u00a0my assistants, but to me I feel like every step we took that day forged a stronger bond between the five of us, a bond, God Willing, that will hold us together for many moons to come. It also has seemed to light a desire in us that keeps calling us back to the mountains.<\/p>\n

I encourage all of you to go out and do something epic with someone you want to get close to, as epic as you dare, or perhaps maybe even just with Mother Earth. She just might show you the time of your life and lasso your heart.<\/p>\n

Peace.<\/p>\n

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In a normal winter, reaching Glacier Point is a monumental task as one has to either ski or snow shoe in for miles. Not something that is done very often. However this year the roads in the high country are still open, the full moon was rising, and access to these locations was incredibly easy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[4,10],"tags":[93,225,401,399,105,400,118,130],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1392"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1683,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392\/revisions\/1683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}