The view from Olmsted Point looking back towards Yosemite Valley. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 24mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f16 for 1/125 of a second.
Today I wanted to give you another perspective from Olmsted Point. This view is from near the top of the point and is looking towards Yosemite Valley. If you look in the middle right of the shot you can just see the back side of Half Dome. This was an incredible day for clouds which rolled over the high country for hours.
One of the great attributes of shooting digital is the ability to shoot pretty much all during the day. This image was shot in the early afternoon when the light was a little harsh. I would not have liked the shot if I had been using film. With digital I can take a shot like this, and in more contrast laden light, then convert to black and white. It works very well here since my subject matter, all the rocks and granite, is basically monochromatic in color. The real color pop was the blue in the sky. But on conversion I can work with the color sliders to darken up the sky and really accentuate the the clouds for that “Ansel Adams” look.
I want to point out a couple of other things I was thinking about with this image. A photograph, in my way of thinking, should always have a door, that is to say a way to get into the shot, and to move beyond the foreground. In this case the door is naturally defined by the two large boulders which provide a way to get to the tree and ultimately beyond to the back of Half Dome. But there are couple of other things going on here as well. And that is the notion of repeating lines. The lines of the mountains are repeated in the lines of the foreground granite. Even the shadow line of the second boulder picks up on this theme. The clouds are also repeating this idea. And notice that parts of the clouds take on the shape of the pine tree. So we have a shot that has multiple layers. The strong, anchor of immovable boulders against the flow of repeating lines against repeating shapes.
So you may ask did I see this when I shot the image. The answer is yes and no. I want to be careful about getting into the mystic here in this discussion. What I saw when I stood here were things that I am always attracted to when I shoot. In this case the convergence of the lines of the mountains with Half Dome, and the clouds. I felt there was something there. This was the starting point for where I began to frame a shot. This part of the point is full of lines cut by the receding glaciers and I wondered about trying to mirror these some way in the shot. The tree was also a consideration but standing alone without anchor points was not working for me. When I moved higher on the point I found what I was seeking. The solid anchor of the boulders, and lead in to the shot, and the repeating lines. I then simply worked the scene until I got the composition. So yes I saw the start of the shot, but not its conclusion until much later. And that becomes the point. Work with the things that inspire you. Then frame those elements and look for themes that will help focus the shot and provide multiple layers of meaning. Work the shot. Don’t settle on the first take. Move around, reframe, re-shoot.
As always I want to thank everybody for joining me on these posts. Get out and shoot.
Bob
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