The Photographer's Guide to Yosemite is now a universal app, built for both iPhone and iPad. The new iPad version takes advantage of the bigger screen to give you easier access to all the information. Click here to see screenshots of the iPad version in the App Store, or watch this video to see the app demonstrated on the iPhone.
Here are some of the app's features:
• In-depth descriptions of 40 outstanding locations including the classic Yosemite Valley views, high country, and surrounding areas.
• Locations Filter—a unique feature that allows you to quickly find the best photo spots for any month and time of day.
• Over 100 stunning photographs show you what you can see at each location.
• Detailed maps and directions.
• Clear, logical layout makes it easy to find the information you need.
• Lots of photography tips to help you capture better images of the park, including Exposure for Digital Cameras, Composition, Depth of Field, HDR and Exposure Blending, Photographing Waterfalls and Cascades, Clearing Storms, and more.
• Sunrise and sunset times, full moon dates, and depth-of-field calculator
• Seasonal Planning Guide helps you find unique photo opportunities for each month.
• Written by a 25-year Yosemite resident and leading expert on photography in Yosemite (that's me of course!).
• Based on the popular book, The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite—the bible of Yosemite photography, with 31 out of 36 five-star reviews on Amazon. This app contains all the information in the original book, and much more: three new locations, completely revised and updated information for the entire park, and new tips specifically designed for digital photography.
• Fully functional without an internet connection.
• At only $6.99, it's cheaper than the book, but with more functionality! And a third of the proceeds from the sale of this app benefit the non-profit Yosemite Conservancy to help fund educational programs, restoration projects, and research in Yosemite National Park.
Will the app will be available for Android phones? Yes, we're working on both an Android version, but I don't yet have a timetable for these.
What about the book? Will it be revised? Yes, a new edition of the book is in the works too, and due out next spring (though delays are common in book publishing).
Please let me know how you like the app—and don't forget to rate it and write a review in the app store!
Many people remember Yosemite’s firefall. On summer evenings from 1872 until 1968 the owners and employees of the Glacier Point Hotel pushed burning hot embers off the top of the Glacier Point cliff toward Yosemite Valley. The effect resembled a waterfall of fire. When the hotel burned down in 1969 the park service decided to end the ritual because this unnatural event caused visitors to trample meadows in their attempts to find a viewing spot.
I first visited Yosemite in 1980, so I never saw the firefall. On the park’s centennial anniversary in 1990 rumors spread that the park service would reenact the firefall, unannounced, but it never happened.
Yosemite, though, has an amazing natural “firefall.” For about ten days each February, if conditions are right, a thin ribbon of water dropping from the East Buttress of El Capitan, called Horsetail Fall, turns vivid orange when backlit by the setting sun. Read the rest of this article
In photography, creativity and technical skill are both essential. It’s great to have a wonderful eye and imagination, but no one will appreciate your genius if your images are washed out and blurry.
The most essential technical skill a photographer must master is exposure. On the surface, exposure seems easy. It’s simply a matter of making the image bright enough—not too dark, and not too light. But the endless variety of light makes exposure challenging. No two situations are the same, so there can be no exact formula for getting the right exposure. On the other hand, exposure doesn’t need to be overly complicated. The fundamental controls—shutter speed, aperture, ISO, light meters—are easy to understand.
In this eBook I start with these essentials, then take you through ten practical, real-life examples where I’ve used these basic principles to control the exposure, the sharpness, and the photograph’s message.
The examples go from easy to complex, and include using a histogram to find the right exposure, controlling depth of field, freezing and blurring motion, when to push the ISO, spot metering and the Zone System, and HDR and exposure blending. I also include several exercises to help improve your technique. It’s a concise, easy to understand, yet comprehensive course in mastering the most important skill in photography.
Like all Craft & Vision eBooks, Exposure for Outdoor Photography is only five dollars. Click here to order your copy!
