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Published: September 7th 2014
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Photos from our last day Our last day before heading home. Up early and out shooting with barely a whimper in the car. The Screamer had been subdued. Right around photo 7 I was waiting for a large bull elk to come into the light as he crossed the Merced when a group of 3 pulled up, jumped out of their car and came running to get a quick snapshot. Animals in Yosemite know they are safe, but they still have that animal instinct. They startled him but he didn't run. He did, however, alter his course and took himself out of my expected elk-in-the-wild shot. Hope one of the intruders came away with a prize.
We again drove up to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias and again the gate was closed. This time, however, we just had to park at the gate parking lot instead of going back to Wawona. The employee who directed us was a local and she said this was the first time in her 21 years there that they had to use these lots in September.
Two years ago when we visited this part of the park we got somewhat better photos. The light was a
lot less harsh then on this
Yosemite Sam trunk, for example, than what was available on
this trip. It's never easy to capture one of these giants in a photo (see the truck in #s 22 & 23) without stitching several exposures together, but this year my first shot was taken at a few minutes after one, post meridian. I was hoping for more help from the large canopy of sequoias, but the 5pm-in-May start on our last trip was certainly more conducive to obtaining a favorable photo. Neither visit should make us feel we deserve more help from the sequoias because both visits were
way too short, but that same thing can be said of whatever part of this park we spent our most time. Way too short, but with life-lasting effects.
Speaking of effects, on our way back to the shuttle I saw this fallen and hollowed out tree which acted like a photographic lead-in bridge to two sequoias that seemed evenly lit, although much of their surroundings glowed in harsh light. Photo 26 was a 2-exposure HDR. I discarded the brightest shot. Number 27 is a single shot that required some digital darkroom dodging and burning to
achieve. Number 28 is another 2-exposure HDR, but this time I let the program, Photomatix, develop the black and white image, which was later enhanced in Photoshop and Lightroom.
There was a 2 and a half hour respite Barb & I enjoyed back at the lodge between photos 31 & 32. When we emerged from the recharging we heard a helicopter. Sounded like another rescue somewhere. Sure enough, as we drove toward El Capitan I knew we'd have to dodge rubber-neckers who wandered around with their eyes in the air watching the drama. Although probably no one really wanted anyone hurt, probably everyone wanted something to go wrong. It just makes a more compelling story. Barb wanted to stop, so we did. I know she's probably still ticked at me for rushing her, but this was our last few hours of daylight in Yosemite. I offered to pick her up on the way back, but...
There are two panoramic photos in the gallery, #34 stitches 9 exposures, while 39 is an 8-shot pano. After our time at Tunnel View we came back to the valley floor and it was still abuzz with the ongoing rescue. Everyone was facing
up with out-stretched arms to try to capture that moment when the climber became the faller. I was busy documenting what the trees and rocks looked like when it happened.
The next morning we stopped one last time at Tunnel View, although the light was against us.
Here is a last photo of Barb. She lost the filling or whatever its called on her front tooth the night before. What is it with Yosemite and teeth? We must return to find out, but next time we might be better off booking our trip around Dr. Soria's schedule.
Home is always the last exciting destination of the trip.
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