April 28, 2009

Yosemite: Photography Walk

Sunday started early with a free photography walk put on by the Ansel Adams Gallery. One guide took about 20 of us out into the Yosemite valley floor to take some amazing photos and share some really great insight. If you have the opportunity to go to Yosemite, see if they are offering one of these walks. My husband even said he learned more about Yosemite from this free walk then he did on the tour we paid for. Between the photography advice, stories about Ansel Adams, and Yosemite trivia... it was really good! ( and no, I'm not being paid to say any of this ;) )

The walk started with a group of deer hanging out near the gallery. The deer in Yosemite are not afraid of people. It's amazing how close you can get without them running away!













Then we headed to a nearby meadow. Our guide taught us about how Ansel Adams would frame his images using the trees, and he pointed out the tree below as one of the famous trees in his work. Looking back at some of my earlier pictures from the trip, it fascinates me how many pictures included this tree and I didn't think anything of it!















As we headed over to the next location I spotted this painter. If you look closely you'll see her painting of the falls. I have a lot of respect for painters. I don't have that kind of patience...



The next location was on the edge of the meadow (can you spot that tree again?) where there is a reflecting pool that only happens in the spring. Nature is amazing!











Next we headed across the Merced River. There is a beautiful view of the falls from here. It's right down from Sentinel Bridge so there is also a really cool view of Half Dome as well.






Look carefully... can you see Half Dome?






Our wonderful guide





Stay tuned for the last bit of our trip!

5 comments:

Meg said...

Beautiful pictures!

Jenna said...

My Mom and I almost did a photography walk in Rome, and now I'm bummed we didn't because this one sounds really cool. I'm going to start researching these when I travel.

Aileen said...

great shots! i love your shots of half dome.

Lauren said...

some of your landscapes are outstanding. i LOVE the one you have in your blog header. how long have you been shooting?

Laura said...

Thanks! I'm really glad that our guide took us to that spot. I would have never thought to go walking through that meadow!

I started messing around with my Dad's camera back in middle school. He was really into photography when I was little and always was trying to get better shots. I didn't seriously start shooting until after our wedding last August. We bought a DSLR the week of the wedding as a little wedding present to ourselves. On our honeymoon I fell back in love with taking photos.

Hmm... maybe I'll do a post about that soon ;)