Yosemite in pictures

The Firefall experience was the highlight.. but the entire day, we were treated to some amazing nature scenes. 

Yosemite is amazing in February! The colors are so vidid and there is a lot of water everywhere and the snow adds enough contrast to the lightshow.

here are two slideshows of all the nature photos from the day..

and the portrait format photos..

Not sure when we will visit the place again.. maybe next year or even later this summer! 

Would love to go back in a time where the roads are not slippery and we can hike all the way to the top of the falls!

Firefalls viewing at Yosemite - a breathtaking experience

Our hiking group has long longed for a trip to Yosemite to see the Firefalls. For those of you not familiar with this, the Horsetail falls in Yosemite gets frozen and when the setting sun falls on this ice and mist, for a few minutes, the falls glows like lava and is called the Firefalls.  It happens over a 15-20 day window in February when most of the other park trails are closed because of ice. It is also a luck of the draw as it has to have rained the previous day and there should be no clouds in the path of the sun on the actual day. 

Many of our friends have made multiple attempts and are yet to see the firefalls.. we took our chances this year and were not disappointed.. we spent a day hiking partly up to Vernal falls till the ice made it too risky for us. Had a nice packed lunch.. then rushed to watch the display that nature put on for us! THis photo is from an iPhone 11 with some editing..

Here are five shots taken with the SLR as the sun went down.. the first one is what the frozen falls looks like before the magic begins..

These pictures don't do justice to what our eyes saw.. every pocket of ice reflects the sun like a diamond and the whole thing shimmers as the sun moves.. something that has to be seen live to experience!

There is also an iPhone photo for comparison that was taking toward the end. The iPhone automatically edits the photo.. for all I know, Apple knowing my location, is running some AI to make the falls look better.. 

and a selfie of a beaming me capturing this..

We took a lot of "Firefies"...

Will do a separate posts on our hike to Vernal falls with pictures!

This whole event lasts 4 to 12 mintues depending on when you go, if you get lucky! For us it was closer to 12 minutes and we got an amazing light show! The previous day was only 4 minute window, per the ranger we spoke to.

Advice to folks who are not pro photographers trying to get a shot.. go an hour early with some blankets and set up! It is a mile and a half walk on icy slippery roads. So expect that to take some time. By the time we got there 30 mintues before, there was no room to put a tripod. So I went behind the crowds into the bushy area and got cut up by thorns in my legs. Could have avoided that if we had been early. 

Also we were lucky that our dinner was in the car. So while a few thousand people all rushed to the parking lots and tried to drive out and gridlocked the whole place, we calmly ate our dinner and then drove out. From 5AM to 11PM, it was a day trip. It was tiring but exhilarating!

This one gets checked off the bucket list!

More in the next post..

Size matters! when you are working on a new flame..

No, this post is not a guide to promiscuity! This is a family blog..which deviates a little too much into photography every now and then..

These days when someone jokes with me about my equipment working the immediate association of the brain is not to the equipment in ones pants but rather the equipment slung on ones shoulders. Guess the camera has become the "primo equipmento" in my life.. and that means if size matters anywhere, it should be the Photography equipments. All nice rationale, no?

That was a picture of all cameras I have owned since 2002 shot with the one other camera (iPhone 3GS) which is used for photos/videos in the house. It is clear that the size trend is going up and the iPhone photos are not that great in dark indoors.

It has been an interesting 24 hours of reading manuals, trying out things within the house (it has been raining outside all afternoon and is extremely windy).

So here is my new flame put to work on a flame. They have settings for white balance where you can set it to custom temperatures (K value where K is Kelvin)

The kids who have been on a TV marathon for hours with kids serials refused to pose. So took shots while they were on the couch.

Jr. made ridiculous faces throughout so her pictures are not here...

The weekend is almost over.. Cannot wait for the next one!

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A milk droplet

Milk droplet hits water in bowl and rebounds up..

Shot with the 2.5f 50mm macro on tripod.

This is the first time trying this. Have seen it before a zillion times from National Geographic (when in middle school) to every strobe flash ad.

The experimentation begins..

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Kid in a Canon store..

After the Disney trip and the realization from the wife that her hubby should get some pro photography gear...

We now are proud owners of a Canon 5D Mark ii

After watching the door for the Fedex truck for a long long seemingly endless time, it arrived today with the first L series lens and a Canon Speedlite flash to go with it.

All this was possible thanks to a friend who got us a great deal through Canon employee discount!

Just holding the camera after putting on the lens and flash gave me goosebumps. There is a lot to learn and a lot of fun to be had going through the learning, like how to get your ISO to be as low as 50 or as high as 25600 or how to shoot a HD video with a full frame sensor Camera!

Usually when this space gets a new Camera or lens update, there are the first sample photos. Today there is only a lot of emotion. The photos will come!

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