timothyq wrote:
Ok so how is everyone getting to the eastern sierras? I live in Fresno and go thru Yosemite, or would.
Hey Timothy,
Most of us don't live in Fresno, so it will be much less of a challenge for us. Myself.... I just take old Hwy 395 from where it starts off from the I-15. I am thinking you simply need to decide if you are going to go north or south around... I think the passes to the north could be really cool... so if I were you, I might try that way.
The colors are amazing in the high Eastern Sierra right now...here is one from our hike up Lundy Canyon yesterday...perfect weather, colors and lighting. More to come, this is just a teaser.
cohenfive wrote:
The colors are amazing in the high Eastern Sierra right now...here is one from our hike up Lundy Canyon yesterday...perfect weather, colors and lighting. More to come, this is just a teaser.
Jim I do not have a point of comparison as this was our first time in Lundy....the waterfalls were all flowing (I have pics of them to show but have to edit them), but they weren't gushing. Enough flow to get some nice pics I think. Some of the stream crossings were dry, some had some water in them that was easily crossed. Our dogs had a fun time trying to find a line across some streams so as not to get too wet! I don't think the colors are going to be this good in another week, they seemed pretty much at peak here.
I haven't been there yet this fall - it is now about two weeks since I returned from a southern Sierra 9-day backcountry shoot. However, I do plan to be out there in during the next week. Say "hi" if you run into me!
Mr. Cohen, I'm glad you got to experience Lundy in autumn. It's a fabulous place and always delivers the color. In response to your post, I don't see the light or weather as being good. I've never made a meaningful fall color image in bright sunlight with clear skies. It's the worst condition. Hopefully you will get a chance to be somewhere similar when there are clouds or a gentle storm in the area along with the soft light it provides. The exception is to shoot before the sun hits the canyon and after it goes down behind the mountain.
Jeffrey wrote:
Mr. Cohen, I'm glad you got to experience Lundy in autumn... I don't see the light or weather as being good. I've never made a meaningful fall color image in bright sunlight with clear skies. It's the worst condition...
Your points about light are on track, but I wouldn't go so far as to suggest that things are quite that limited.
The Sierra are more often than not clear. Among Sierra photographers, you'll often hear complaints about "too much perfect weather," and we often wish that the good weather would go away and give us a few clouds! (In the winter this is less of a problem, but still...)
We are happy when we get beautiful and compelling cloud conditions, but there are ways to shoot without them, and even aspens provide more options than some might think. A few ideas include:
- Shoot in the soft light of very early morning and in the evening when there can be a lot of warm, indirect light reflected for various sources, and a lot less of the potentially harsh and bright midday light.
- Shoot in shadows. Before the sun rises high enough to clear the ridges, and after it drops behind them in the evening, it is possible to find beautiful, soft light that fills that shadows and does not create harsh highlights. (You may want to do some color adjustments in post, since this light can be quite blue.)
- Shoot deep in the shadows of thick groves and focus on small elements of the trees - a few leaves or a branch rather than whole trees and whole groves. Quite often you can find these little intimate landscapes even at the sunniest hours.
- Use the sun as the subject, shooting straight into it in the early/late hours, when its backlight can intensify the colors of the trees and when backlit haze can enhance effects of distance - known as "atmospheric recession."
Count yourself lucky when you can get some clouds, but that isn' t the only way to find soft beautiful light... and don't rule out the possibility of shooting in the bright light.
Thanks for the tips on lighting...I certainly can see where you are coming from. We only had this one day, and it was bright and sunny, so we tried to make the best of it. I did shoot in the trees a bit using the sun as a big 'backlight', and those were some of my favorites from the hike. My wife was certainly happier to have a sunny and clear day rather than a cloudy and cold one!
cohenfive wrote:
Thanks for the tips on lighting...I certainly can see where you are coming from. We only had this one day, and it was bright and sunny, so we tried to make the best of it. I did shoot in the trees a bit using the sun as a big 'backlight', and those were some of my favorites from the hike. My wife was certainly happier to have a sunny and clear day rather than a cloudy and cold one!
As we like to say in my household, "A warm wife is a happy wife!" ;-)
Good point Jim! It started about three/four months ago with people posting last years or prior photos, then we've rolled ahead and seen little new... It's like rather than showing the best they have, people will only show one from the perfect date & time - if they are lucky enough to be there right then. So we won't see many if that's the case?
Here's how it looked this past weekend (Oct. 5-6). I was in the Tahoe area this weekend, so I swung over to Hope Valley to check out the colors. They aren't yet at peak, but there was definitely some color.
Finally, the area around Spooner Lake, including North Canyon just north of the lake seem to be just about at peak colors (I didn't have my camera with me, though).
