I’ll be back, really. I just need a few more spare hours ;).

I recently had the pleasure of visiting Yosemite to take part in a small photography workshop and had a great time, meeting many people and (of course) seeing amazing sights.  Dave Wyman and Ken Rockwell were the hosts, providing instruction and locations over a 3 day period.  This was my first “official” workshop, having done many photowalks – both organized and not – over the last few years.

I flew to SFO and then drove a rented Ford Escape for the 4.5 hour journey to Yosemite. Trip there was easy enough, although I didn’t get into the park until dark and there was a fair amount of roadwork going on which confused the GPS. I Eventually found Yosemite Lodge, though, and was able to bump into Dave to find out where to meet & when, etc. for the next day.

Day 1 began at 7:30am at Curry Village and was a busy day, heading first to Stoneman Meadow (views of Half Dome and more), a nearby creek and bridges (beautiful reflections in the calm of early morning) before heading out to the Girls Club and Ansel Adams Gallery.  Ken gave a good talk on the fundamentals of shooting landscape photography, going over exposure, color balance, lighting and more.  Ken is an excellent speaker and teacher, with the most important message being “just get out and shoot”.

After Ken’s talk, we headed to the Ansel Adams Gallery and the nearby cemetary, taking numerous pictures along the way.  It was great to mingle with the crowd and compare shots, angles, etc. to see how everyone approached their photography.

The afternoon was spent at El Capitan Meadow, Valley View, Tunnel View, Fern Springs (Yosemite’s smallest waterfall – OK Dave that’s reaching…;)) and the Bridalveil Falls parking lot to see the rainbow that Dave promised, which did show up even though the water was sparse.  We ended the day at the Yosemite Chapel, running a road block and meeting a family of deer to boot.  A bunch of us headed back to Curry Village for pizza and beverages (beer for Dave & I, chocolate milk for Ken).

Day 2 was, for the most part, about driving and finding gas… OK not really but it felt that way.  We started the day heading down to the Merced River for some early morning reflections of Half Dome in the water, and began a slow hike looping around to the Supervisor’s Cabin.  Lots of great views along the way.  After breakfast we headed out to the Foresta Barns, a brief drive outside the park.  Afterwards we continued to drive to Mariposa and the giant Sequoias – right about here is where our car (myself and 3 others) decided gas was a priority, especially since the gas station at our meeting place was closed for renovations.  No problem, an hour out of the way to Oakhurst and we made it back to the Sequoias in time to meet up with everyone else.  Good thing I filled up, too, because after the trees we headed up to Glacier Point, about a 20 mile drive from the Park entrance.  This was the highlight of the day for me, as it (and Washburn Point just before it) offered amazing views of the valley and a straight-on look at Half Dome.  Worth the drive, to say the least.  The day ended with a nice dinner with new friends from California and a late night of viewing pics in Lightroom.

Day 3, the last day (already?) was only scheduled for the morning, but we did manage to see a lot.  We met at the Ahwahnee Hotel for breakfast (the “ritzy” place of Yosemite) and then wandered around the area for new photo ops.  A few of us walked back to the Lodge (at least 3km, I’d say) and met up there for final goodbyes and exchanges of info.  I gave out a few Moo cards to people, I hope they manage to get to my site and read this ;).

As my flight was booked for the next day, I went back to my room for a few hours to relax and then met up with Jay and his wife, plus a very nice couple from Florida (OK guys I need spelling on your names….) for dinner.  Called it a night fairly early to get up at 6 to start heading back to SFO and home.  Long drive but nice weather, then a 3 hour+ wait at the airport for a delayed flight back home.

I have finally managed to upload images to Flickr and Smugmug, so please have a look and leave any comments or questions.  I hope to do more of these in the future.  Thanks again to Dave & Ken – next stop Vancouver, OK guys…? 

PS I have created a group on Flickr called “Autumn Light In Yosemite 2008” for anyone that is on Flickr to post their pictures to.  To use it, join the group (an option on this page) and then upload your pictures as normal.  Select one of your pictures that you would like to submit to the group and select “Send To Group” in your toolbar on the Flickr Page and choose the “Autumn Light in Yosemite 2008″ group.  Optionally, you can also add the tag “AutumnLightInYosemite2008″ as another way of pooling all of these shots together.  Searching for that phrase (no spaces) will return all pictures in Flickr with that tag. E-mail or leave me a comment here if you have any questions at all.

Since we’ve been to Tofino a few times already, didn’t really do much in the way of sightseeing, but did get out to spot whales on Thursday.  Got lucky, too, as we saw both Grays and Humpbacks (although the Humpbacks were about 10km offshore in choppy waters).

Also checked out the Botanical Gardens, which sounds bigger than it is… basically a small series of trails totalling maybe 1km.  Seeing as how we didn’t travel far from home there weren’t exactly “exotic” sights, but room for photos nonetheless:

All of the published photos are on Flickr, culled from, oh, 1600 or so.  Yes I know, but digital is cheap and I’m always worried I’ll miss something ;).

Hope to post pics to Flickr at some point and keep blogging.  Wifi is sparse, though, as of right now the only place I can get a signal is out here on the ocean facing deck – darn ;).

Great way to finish the time off. More pictures at my Flickr site here.

So we’re home, but not for long – we leave Saturday morning for a Sechelt B&B for definite relaxation with Bruce & Janice. In the meantime, I have tried to catch up on the blogs (anyone notice?) and have also managed to post a small number of the over 2300 pictures that (mostly) I managed to take while we were gone. You can view them here.

I’ll post after we get back from Sechelt, no doubt with other pics.

The fire was very close to the highway:

As we finally reached the actual fire and drove by, I was struck by the heat that was still coming from it, even though it was essentially out. The outside temperature was already over 90 degrees F, but I still felt the heat from the fire as we went by with an open window. You can also still see a few flames:

Exciting, even if it delayed us getting to our hotel by over an hour. Finally arrived at Canyonville in the evening and decided to stay at the Seven Feathers Hotel & Casino (hey why not be Vegas for just one more night ;)). Nice place, reasonable rooms. Didn’t lose much, which was a bonus.

Tomorrow, on to Washington and home.

Started out a bit rocky – figuratively and literally. Turns out Yosemite’s portion of Highway 140 was actually closed some time ago due to a rockslide (picture by Mare):

(yes, that’s a road under there – you can see it on the left side).

Thankfully they have a detour in place, but that is typically a 15 minute delay while you wait for a one lane bridge and roadway to be available.

However, we did make it to Cathedral Beach in time to see the sun come up:

Many great places to see and photograph, including Cathedral Beach, El Capitan Meadow, Cathedral Rocks Vista, Cook’s Meadow, Valley View and of course Tunnel View. Others too, but you’ll have to check out my Flickr feed when it’s up to see all the pics – too many to post here. Here’s a taste at least:

Elm Tree at Cook’s Meadow
Cathedral Rocks
Valley View

Had to “Ansel Adams” at least one pic, just for fun. Here’s the famous Tunnel View at early morning:

Amazing place, I would love to come back in the spring when the falls are running. Summer is a great time to go weather-wise, but by now most of the run-off is done and the falls are non-existant. Spring or winter are definitely the times to come – in fact most books say summer is the worst, photogenically speaking. Oh well, was still pretty spectacular even if not as watery as it could be.

Starting to head towards home tomorrow, although it will take a couple of days. We plan on staying in southern Oregon on the first night, then reaching home the next evening.

Drive was relatively uneventful other than some education. As I drive through each state I’m discovering certain tendencies from the local drivers. For example:

- Idaho drivers are reasonably fast
- Utah drivers are scary fast
- Arizona drivers are laid back
- California drivers tailgate, pass on the right, cut you off frequently, speed often and are probably packing

Something like that, but it’s a learning process. I’m sure I’ll really get critical as I go.

So there are a lot of Wind Generators in California:

No really, there are a LOT of Wind Generators in California:

Guess they got tired of stealing our power.

Long drive to Yosemite, well actually Bootjack. Yes, that’s really the name. The B&B that we are staying at (Highland House B&B) lists its address as Mariposa but I think that’s just to stop the cowboys from staying there ;). Not only that, but it is over an hour from Yosemite park and is located at the end of a 2 mile long dirt road. Dirt, heat, lack of rain and Mini do not mix well. Let’s just say it was caked by the time we got to the B&B. Nice place, though, overall. Lizzie was our hostess (not the owner but definitely the one that ran the place) and she was very accommodating.

Hitting the sack early to get up for sunrise to snap El Capitan and whatever else we can with the early light. Course, being an hour out we will be up at 4:30 for the privilege. I feel so lucky…

And how about a 7 storey, 1 block long parking lot dedicated just to staff parking:

We walked around for most of the day, riding the monorail when we could and stopping to gamble in glorious air conditioning when we couldn’t stand the heat anymore. Eventually it got dark out and we were able to check out the fountains at the Bellagio and the Eiffel Tower at night:

We also went up the Eiffel Tower at Paris and got some shots of the strip at night (well, half of it):

Went back to the MGM after all of that and tried not to lose some more money, boy we tried ;). Off to Yosemite tomorrow, looking forward to seeing it, but not looking forward to the 8 hours or so of driving.