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Thirsty Thursday: Yosemite Views
Rambler: Beth Drink at Hand: Boulevard Brewing Company Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale. Fitting since I'm sitting in a farmhouse. Very tasty!
Thirsty Thursday here again! Time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. Given that I'm sitting in a farmhouse drinking a farmhouse ale, I'm obviously in Iowa for Christmas. Since we spent the last holiday with my family, I figured it was time to post some more photos from our trip to Yosemite over Thanksgiving before another holiday piled more photos on the heep!
We tried to cram as much Yosemite into two days as possible. We had beautiful fall weather which made for some nice photo opportunities.
We hope that you enjoy a wonderful holiday weekend! Merry Christmas!
Thirsty Thursday: Yosemite with the Fam
Rambler: BethDrink at Hand: Powder Keg Demolition Red
Howdy folks! Thirsty Thursday calls again. Time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. Since its the holiday season, most people get to spend some time with family at some point. We were lucky to have my family visit over Thanksgiving. It was my sister's first trip to California ever, and my parents had only been here once, so we had lots to show them.
We went to Yosemite for Thanksgiving. Holidays are a great time to visit. While everyone was stuffing their faces with turkey, we were checking out giant Sequoias and hiking to waterfalls. It was my family's first trip to Yosemite, and its an amazing place to share with people who've never been there.
Hopefully you get the chance to share some place fun with your family sometime during the holiday season.
Thirsty Thursday: Uncommon Views at Yosemite
Drink in Hand: Ice Water Rambler: Terry
When you vist Yosemite, you are always tempted to take the standard images. The images you see everywhere. The beautiful rock formations that tower above you. I have to admit that it is tough to not photograph these scenes. But sometimes, I think the scenes you normally pass by are the ones that make a trip to the valley more real. They are scenes that you rarely take the time to appreciate their beauty. Here are a few of those scenes that I think fit into this category.
Of course, I actually did take some of those standard shots (who could actually resist), but those are for another day...
Two Word Tuesday: Autumn Creek
Thirsty Thursday: Mystery Rolls
Rambler: Beth Drink at Hand: Naked Grape Pinot Noir (yeah, I bought it because of the name...don't judge me!)
Something a little different this Thursday...not so much about a cool place to go shoot, but rather about an attempt at shooting some film! About a month ago I walked into the local camera shop with 3 rolls of exposed Kodak Tri-X 400 black and white film in my hands. I bought this film when we lived in Japan...yep, that's right, purchased 2006 most likely. It was well past the expiration date! I found one roll already exposed when I was organizing some camera stuff when we moved into the new house. The other two rolls I took recently. Actually, that's not even true...I found my film camera with a 1/2 exposed roll in it. So I had a roll and a half of mystery images (I had no idea what that old stuff might be) and a roll and a half that I had shot within the last few weeks. I waited the requisite week to get the processed film back from the lab and then had to wait a few more days for Terry to scan the film with our Nikon CoolScan film scanner before I actually got to see what I had.
It turns out that the old "mystery roll" was pretty old...from 2008! That also means it was exposed, tossed in a box, moved Lousyana, endured the heat of that place, moved back here to California, and finally shown some chemical bath love. Back in '08 a friend was considering buying a digital camera, so I loaned him my digital camera when he went out to shoot with us at Point Pinos one evening, and I shot film with an old Nikon full manual camera. Here are a few from that evening.
A few months later we went to Yosemite. I guess I took the camera with me to finish that roll from the summer evening at the beach. I don't even remember having it with me. But of course I took a Tunnel View photo in black and white--because no one has ever done that before!
Fast forward to 2011...I decided to try a roll in my Canon Elan 7E on our way north along the coast to Pescadero. I used the Photodiox adapter with the Nikon 50mm manual lens. It was pouring down rain, but I couldn't let this bike go without a quick photo. Terry kept making fun of me because I kept looking at the back of the camera after snapping the shutter--but there's no instant feedback in the form of a LCD screen on the back of a film camera.
To finish off that roll I took the camera along on a quick hike with the dog in Ft Ord and shot a few here at home.
Get out and try something new or different this weekend. You might be surprised by the results!
Thirsty Thursday: Snow Yosemite
Rambler: Beth Drink at Hand: 2008 Yosemite View Chardonnay...well that worked out rather fortuitously!
The last 2 weeks have been anything but "springlike" around California. Here on the coast we've had some serious rain and a some wind to go along with it, while the Sierra is getting pounded with storm after storm, each dumping feet of snow up there. This week has been so bad in the high country that all the roads to Yosemite are closed from snow, ice, flooding, rockslides, downed trees/power lines, or a combination there of (though I just heard that the main highways will be open again tomorrow). All this talk of a snowy Yosemite Valley made us think back to our own snow-venture we had up there back in 2008. Terry's parents came out to visit for Christmas, and on Christmas day we headed up to the national park, dragging a lovely winter storm along with us that dumped roughly 18" of snow over the course of 2 days.
The great thing about visiting Yosemite in a snow storm on Christmas is that you pretty much have the place to yourself. Unfortunately all the snow made a lot of spots inaccessible, but we were still treated to some fantastic scenery. We all wished we had snowshoes to get off the roads and out of the parking lots for a bit, but it was still beautiful. The snow stuck on the trees for the duration of the three days we were there, which accordingly to locals, is a rarity...it normally falls off or blows off as soon as the sun comes out. Blue skies and snowy trees...doesn't get much better. Enjoy this mix of photos from both of us.
Our first hike shortly after arrival (and chaining up!)
See how hard its snowing?!
Trees and snow...made for black and white.
This is one of my favorite shots ever. Deer butts!!!
It was so cold that Bridal Veil Falls was just barely flowing.
But the Merced River still had plenty of water running.
The next day the sun came out and made everything spectacular. Terry was on fire capturing some dramatic light throughout the Valley.
Two photographers = two perspectives on the same subject.
Clearing storm.
Unfortunately we won't be making it to Yosemite any time soon. I can only imagine how incredible the park must look with all that fresh snow. Perhaps next winter. And next time we are taking snow shoes!!
Hello Again
I know, I know, no bloggy for awhile. We've had visitors and bike races and trips to the aquarium and photo outings and snow-filled trips to Yosemite. But soon we'll get everyone caught up on our ever-so-exciting lives. In the meantime, enjoy the photo above from Yosemite, taken the day after Christmas which also happened to be the day after what the locals called an epic snowfall.
More pics on our Flickr page.