Stand in Front of More Interesting Things (May 19)

One of my favorite photography quotations is, “If you want to take better photographs, stand in front of more interesting things.” We are definitely doing that, but it doesn't automatically result in better photographs. I struggled today.

We started the day at a sweet spot called Fern Spring. It is right beside the road, but easy to miss. We were the only ones there are first, but as seems to be the case throughout the park, people pull over to see what other people are looking at. A couple thanked us for drawing them to the location. Turns out they know people in Rossland.

Because it happened to be on the way to Wawona, our destination for the day, we stopped at Tunnel View to see what might be happening vista-wise. It was mid-morning by this time, so not great light. There was definitely a different group of photographers were there than we had seen when we were there in the early mornings or sunset times...more the point-and-shoot crowd than forest of tripods. It was the first time, though, that we saw Half Dome without its usual shroud of clouds.

Our plan was to hike to the cascades below Chilnualna Falls (the hike to the falls is 8.4 mi round trip with a 2300 foot elevation gain...not sure we want to tackle that!). To get to the trailhead, we drove through the little community of Wawona complete with a small elementary school, a large library, and a variety of houses ranging from rustic rental cabins to impressive houses that could be in any suburban area.

We started up the trail, but turned around soon after as it starts with a steep section. A bridge crosses the creek just past the parking lot, so we wandered around and the views of the creek were quite dramatic without having to hike anywhere. Photography Challenge #1: water. Exposing for a turbulent, white water in a forest is challenging.

The sunshine had encouraged some flowers to bloom, and we particularly liked the lupine which is like a miniature version of what we have at home.

We parked at the Wawona Hotel, another venerable establishment that has been serving Yosemite tourists since 1917. This was posh digs in its day (and may still be, but we didn't go in). It includes a 9-hole golf course, an outdoor swimming pool, and tennis courts.

Across the road from the hotel, with the groundskeeper mowing the fairways, we found the Wawona Meadow Loop. This is actually an old road, so the trail is wide and fairly flat. The information I have rates the crowd factor as “light.” During our entire 3.5 miles walk, we saw 4 other people (or 6 if you count the fact that we saw the same couple twice, or 9 if you count the 3 deer nibbling at the edge of the meadow). This was quite a change from everything we have experienced so far in Yosemite Valley.

There were some interesting flowers and plants, and the man of the aforementioned couple was able to identify many of them. Pictured here are a snow plant and trillium. We had seen the red plant before and thought it was some sort of mushroom, but when we saw it “opened,” it was quite lovely. Photography Challenge #2: Blue flowers. For some reason, cameras (or maybe just it's just me, but I'm sure I have read this somewhere) have a hard time with blue. It's either washed out or too dark, but either way, not what we see with our eyes.

Those of you who have hiked with me know that nimble is not an adjective ever used to describe me. In some places, the trail was very wet, but we managed to find a way around most of the worst of it. At one point, though, we came to a small stream that gave me pause...maybe taking off my shoes and socks was a better option than balancing on rocks and taking a chance of getting the camera wet when I fell in. But, you will be proud, we were able to go from rock to rock while bending over and grasping branches of a fallen log, and our shoes hardly even got wet. Yay for us!

When we completed the loop, we boarded the shuttle bus for the 20 minute ride up to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. Traffic here was anything but “light” even though there is still snow on the ground and the paths are wet, muddy, and slippery. Many of the big trees have labels like “Fallen Monarch,” “Grizzly Giant” (Jerry calls this “fat bastard”), “Bachelor and 3 Graces.” The “California Tunnel Tree” is the only living tree in Yosemite with a tunnel drilled through it. for the benefit of tourist stage coaches around 1895. We found a few beautiful unnamed trees that we liked best. These trees are old. The Grizzly Giant, for example, is estimated to be 2700 years old. One source says that 50 billion people have been born and died during its lifetime!

In spite of their incredible height, sequoias have shallow but far reaching root systems in order to get the water they need to survive. Something we found very interesting is the symbiotic relationship that exists between the trees and horsetail, a plant that grows in great abundance around our house too, but seems miniature in relation to the size of the horsetail we saw here.

Those of you who have been following these notes know that we have been to Tunnel View several times. Well, might as well stop there again on the way home from Wawona. Half Dome was still not going to give us a good sunset panorama, but the light was nice, and we spent a lovely hour chatting with a young couple from Brooklyn. We ended up having dinner with them at the pizza place in our hotel complex. Colin is a professional photographer and also does professional lighting (he is on his way to San Francisco to, as his girlfriend described it, “light boring conference speakers at the Fairmont.” Having just spent a good part of the last month at conferences, I found it amusing that conference organizers would find it necessary to bring a lighting specialist clear across the country. Nikki is a professional singer, but I think she is a younger me: grew up in Wisconsin and attended the University of Michigan.

I wonder what all the thousands of people in Yosemite this week will do with the thousands of photos they are taking. I ended the day with some shots I liked, so in spite of what I thought was a very frustrating day, maybe standing in front of all those interesting, beautiful, unusual places did help after all.