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The Yosemite in Springtime
16 17 18
May 2014

These are snaps I made while helping lead the Yosemite Conservancy's Spring Light 2014 photo tour.

I grabbed my 1955 LEICA M3, 1959 LEITZ SUPER-ANGULON 21mm f/4, 1965 LEICA SUMMICRON 35mm f/2, 1957 LEICA SUMMICRON 50mm f/2 with near-focussing range and 1964 LEICA ELMARIT 90mm f/2.8 and one expired roll of Ilford Pan-F Plus 50. I prefer TMAX 100 since it has the same grain and a stop more speed, but wanted to shoot my last old roll of Pan F Plus I had sitting in my refrigerator.

For digital I would have brought my Canon 5D Mark III, 16-35/2.8 L II, 35/1.4 L, 50/1.2 L and 70-200/4 IS L if I was serious, but since I was in a silly mood and supposed to be leading a workshop as opposed to shooting for myself, instead I grabbed a Fuji X-T1, Fuji 10-24mm, Fuji 18-55mm and Fuji 55-200mm lenses just to see what would happen.

I set the Fuji to its Velvia mode and set its color to +2 (high), and the colors you see here are mostly what came out of the camera as JPGs. While these colors will impress the innocent, they aren't as good as what I'd want for serious nature and landscape shots. I much prefer the color rendition out of my Canon 5D Mark III, Nikon D7100, D610, D800E — or iPhone 5S. I love the Fuji digitals for people photos, but not for nature and landscape. Something's just not happening on the Fujis which is on the Nikon, Canon and iPhone. With the Fuji set to Velvia, shadows still tend to clip to black and have purplish tints not easily corrected, while my Nikons, iPhone and Canons look great at their Vivid settings.

I had my film processed and scanned at North Coast Photo Services, then copied all my image files to my silent Mac Pro and used Phase One Media Pro to catalog and select which of these images I wanted to publish.

I dragged each selected image from Phase One Media Pro into Photoshop CS6 for artistic input and formatting. I cropped carefully and often added deliberate vignetting to keep your eyes from wandering. Most shots were processed with the Athentech Perfectly Clear plug-in which usually makes them look even better.

All my black-and-white works are split-toned prints.

 

16 May 2014, Friday      top

First thing today we walked over to Yosemite falls and looked at the rainbows.

Water Flows across the Rocks at the Base of Yosemite Falls

Water across the Stones, Base of Yosemite Falls, 7:57 AM. (Fuji X-T1, Fuji 55-200mm at 116mm, f/16 at 1/8 hand-held at ISO 100, Athentech Perfectly Clear, split-toned print.) Full Resolution.

See also Best Shutter Speeds for Water.

 

Rainbow at Yosemite Falls

Rainbow at Yosemite Falls, 8:04 AM. (Fuji X-T1, Fuji 55-200mm at 55mm, f/4.5 at 1/140 hand-held at ISO 100.)

 

Ponderosa Pines at Yosemite Falls

Ponderosa Pines at Yosemite Falls, 8:18 AM. (Fuji X-T1, Fuji 55-200mm at 55mm, f/18 at 1/30 hand-held at Auto ISO 400, Athentech Perfectly Clear.)

 

Yosemite Falls

Yosemite Falls, 8:54 AM. (Fuji X-T1, Fuji 55-200mm at 172mm, f/22 at 1/15 hand-held at Auto ISO 200, Athentech Perfectly Clear.) Full-resolution.

Note how I was able to hand-hold at 1/15 to get the water to look great, and with OIS image stabilization, needed no tripod.

 

After looking at the falls, we walked back to the lodge and rented bicycles to ride around the valley.

 

Bike Helmets at Bike Rentals, Yosemite Lodge at the Falls

Bike Helmets at Bike Rentals, Yosemite Lodge at the Falls, 9:01 AM. (Fuji X-T1, Fuji 55-200mm at 200mm, f/4.8 at 1/30 hand-held at Auto ISO 1,250, Athentech Perfectly Clear.)

 

First bike stop: the Superintendant's house.

 

Yosemite Valley as Seen from the Superintendant's House

Yosemite Valley as Seen from the Superintendant's House, 10:22 AM. (Fuji X-T1, Fuji 10-24mm at 10mm, f/22 at 1/60 hand-held at Auto ISO 400, Athentech Perfectly Clear.)

 

Ferns, Yosemite Valley

Ferns, Yosemite Valley, 11:02 AM. (Fuji X-T1, Fuji 55-200mm at 200mm, f/5.6 at 1/400 hand-held at Auto ISO 200, Athentech Perfectly Clear.) Full-resolution.

 

Banana Seats at the Bike Rental Shop, Yosemite Lodge at the Falls

Banana Seats at the Bike Rental Shop, Yosemite Lodge at the Falls, 2:11 PM. (Fuji X-T1, Fuji 18-55mm at 42mm, f/22 at 1/56 hand-held at Auto ISO 400, Athentech Perfectly Clear.)

 

We turned in our bikes and headed further out in our cars.

 

Fern Springs, Yosemite Valley

Fern Springs, Yosemite Valley, 4:00 PM. (1955 LEICA M3, 1957 LEICA SUMMICRON 50mm f/2 with near-focussing range, no filter, 2 seconds at f/8 on tripod as read by LEICAMETER MR-4, expired Ilford Pan-F Plus 50, North Coast Photo Services process and scan, Athentech Perfectly Clear, split-toned print.)

 

Tunnel View

Tunnel View, 4:23 PM. (Apple iPhone 5S, f/2.2 at 1/1,642 at ISO 32, Athentech Perfectly Clear.)

 

I held the iPhone down into a bronze model of the valley to get this view.

 

Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite Valley

Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite Valley, 5:04 PM. (1955 LEICA M3, 1957 LEICA SUMMICRON 50mm f/2 with near-focussing range, LEICA Orange filter, f/5.6 at 1/50 as read by LEICAMETER MR-4, expired Ilford Pan-F Plus 50, North Coast Photo Services process and scan, Athentech Perfectly Clear, split-toned print.)

 

Rainbow on Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite Valley

Rainbow on Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite Valley, 6:00 PM. (Fuji X-T1, Fuji 55-200mm at 156mm, f/11 at 1/420 hand-held at Auto ISO 400, Athentech Perfectly Clear.)

 

Evening Mist across Stoneman Meadow, Yosemite Valley

Evening Mist across Stoneman Meadow, Yosemite Valley, 7:40 PM. (Fuji X-T1, Fuji 55-200mm at 156mm, f/4.5 at 1/30 hand-held at Auto ISO 640, Athentech Perfectly Clear.)

 

Red across Stoneman Bridge, Yosemite Valley

Red across Stoneman Bridge, Yosemite Valley, 7:58 PM. (Fuji X-T1, Fuji 55-200mm at 200mm, f/4.8 at 1/15 hand-held at Auto ISO 1,000, Athentech Perfectly Clear.)

 

Last Light on Half Dome as Seen from Stoneman Meadow, Yosemite Valley

Last Light on Half Dome as Seen from Stoneman Meadow, Yosemite Valley, 7:59 PM. (Fuji X-T1, Fuji 55-200mm at 200mm, f/4.8 at 1/110 hand-held at Auto ISO 400, Athentech Perfectly Clear.)

 

That's all for today. NEXT ->> 17 May 2014, Saturday

 

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