Big Flat Oak

After entering the Yosemite National Park from Hwy 120, the first view of the Valley landmarks can be seen from a turnout on Big Flat Oak Road. This shot is from the turnout. For some reasons I haven't seen a lot of pictures of this view.

This is just a preview to the visitors of what lies ahead in the valley.



To me, this view communicates the grand size of the El Capitan & Half Dome.

Simple things....

Anand posted this pic of Reflection of Trans-America bldg yes'day on his blog.

I really like it although my short comment on his site may not reflect that :)

I have looked at it several times today & have been reminded how there are so many interesting subjects around to make a good photograph.

I just need to look hard and think before bringing the camera to the eye level & clicking away.

Toy Story

I went through some of my old slides; I like this one in particular.

This was shot few years back at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.



My epson scanner doesn't do any justice to the slides; colors come out all wacky & I usually say goodbye to sharpness.

Recently I borrowed a co-worker's nikon slide scanner but unfortunately the scsi card in my computer is not compatible with the scanner output. I gotta do something about it. I have some few hundred slides which I want to share with my friends & family but just can't do until I get 'em in digital form. No one likes to look at the slides :(

Last day at Mono Lake

This picture is from our last day in Lee Vining, shooting Mono Lake.
We also shot some Sand Tufas at Navy Beach, will post the pictures later sometime Ya' all might be getting a lil' bored of all these tufas :)



After shooting the sunrise we headed for breakfast & shoot around June/Silver Lake.



I had the most delicious Lobster Taquitos at the Mobil Restaurant. If you are going to Yosemite during Spring/Summer when Tioga Road is open & have 3-4 hours to spare, do nothing else than driving the Tioga Pass to Lee Vining just to have lunch/dinner at the Mobil Restaurant. Drive (about 1.5 to 2 hours each way) is beautiful & food is worth much more.



Heading to back home we decided to take Tioga Pass again to shoot at several stops which we missed on our way to Mono Lake. Tenaya Lake is beautiful (will post some pics later).

Half Dome from Olmstead Point looks like this:



Three days passed just like that..... It was the best of the times, photographically speaking :). Three days of sheer photography with friendly folks, what more can you ask for?

June Lake

After shooting for whole day (Mono lake sunrise, Bridgeport, Bodie), many from the group decided to rest that evening (10/09) but 3 photo crazy guys wanted more & went looking for places to shoot at sunset.

June Lake loop was on Steve's agenda for next day but we thought we'll do it today. The loop is actually a drive around June Lake, Silver Lake & one more lake (name escapes me right now), with some parts of it going along the lake shore.

The clouds were gathering & sun was going to set in 1/2 hour & we hadn't found our spot yet. Instead of wasting anymore time, we decided to just settle at the next shore we find. We saw the sign for June lake marina & decided to go there.

I like these two shots the most from the evening.





Next... last chapter of this trip: South Tufa Sunrise & Tioga pass drive.

Bodie - The Ghost Town

After shooting for more than 2 hours at Marina, we headed for breakfast in Bridgeport, a small & quiet town.

Road to Bridgeport was very scenic but we didn't stop to shoot. At the restaurant Michael showed us a picture he took on his way. That just did it for us, we had to go back :)

This is one of my favorite from that shoot.



Jeff, Rob & I got almost the same shots here.... Jeff's featured on front page of a professional printing site mpix.com. Congrats Jeff!!

Next stop - Bodie: the best preserved ghost town of America.
More than $100M worth of gold was mined here. It had the worst reputation too, rumour had it that everyday a murder was commited in Bodie before sunrise. Today it is mostly deserted, no one lives here except for few park rangers.

This car in Bodie, I believe has been photographed if not millions, several hundred thousand times, yet every picture I have seen tells a different story.



Also, check out Michael Soo's Bodie Gallery.

Mono Lake Sunrise

We crossed Yosemite NP via Tioga Pass to arrive at Monolake for sunset shoot on 10/08. I got atleast one keeper.

Our workshop host Steve Kiser had a plotted schedule. Next morning we were to reach the marina by 6:15AM, with 3 of us sharing the room meant waking up at 4:30.

Waking up that early in the morning and being in fresh air really opens up one's mind. This is one of my several shots that morning. The blue sky, fire on the horizon & the calmness of the lake. Waking up that early was worth it.



My buddy Rob got yet another beautiful capture of the sunrise. Thats Moon & Venus, I think.

Hurricane Ridge

Some time in August '04 we had a company party in Seattle; they flew all of bayarea employees up there. I took the opportunity to enjoy the weekend in Olympic NP with some co-workers.

It was pretty foggy up at the Hurricane Ridge, we couldn't see 20 feet ahead & of course the drive uphill was slow.



Previous day we spent in Quinault Rain Forest. We stayed in the cabin on the river side. It was pretty good fun.



I would love to go there again during the fall/winter someday.

Guardians of the Valley

On our way to Mono lake we (Jeff, Rob & I) stopped at Yosemite during the day. It was bright sunny day with lots of photo opportunity, but we were rushed for time so didn't explore lots of good spots.

This picture is from the "Gates of the Valley" spot which I like to call "Guardians of the Valley".



This is one of my favorite spots in yosemite & in my opinion the least photographed one.

This is the last spot on the northside one-way road going out of the valley, which I think is a design flaw. This should have been the first spot entering in the valley. No one gets to see this view until they are ready to leave the valley & by that time most are so tired to enjoy the beauty of this view. I read somewhere that the average time a person spends on feet in a day in Yosemite NP is about 2 hours, which is a shame.

Magnificient El Capitan on the left, Cathedral rocks on the right. You can hardly see Bridal Veil falls from here, there's not much water left by October. Yosemite falls was completely dry. I was told that only Vernal & Nevada falls have water during this time of the year.

This was my second trip to Yosemite within a month. I enjoyed every bit of it.
Later I'll put some pictures of my previous (September '04) trip when we spotted some climbers on El Capitan.

Mono Lake Sunset

I recently went on a photography trip to Mono lake with couple of folks from bay area.

Got some good pictures, learnt quite a few things, made a few friends, overall great experience.

Here's one picture I really like: Sunset at South Tufa, light was just so beautiful.



I am still warming up on post-processing of my pictures. As I catch up speed on that I'll be posting more pictures.

Your comments are welcome.