In the Moment:
Michael Frye's Landscape Photography Blog
by Michael Frye | Apr 4, 2013 | Light and Weather, Yosemite Photo Conditions
Poppies, lupine, and oaks, late yesterday afternoon
I made the photograph above yesterday, and I’m sure many of you will notice the similarity between this image and one I posted two weeks ago. These are the very same trees, and again I’ve used the radiating pattern of the shadows. When I went back to this spot yesterday there were more poppies mixed with the lupine, and the trees had new leaves. So I worked on the same idea, but with different conditions.
I’m not afraid to repeat myself if I think I might be able to improve on a previous photograph. Sometimes I just don’t execute the photograph perfectly on the first try. Other times the conditions are better the second or third time around. What are the odds that you’ll visit a place for the first time and find perfect conditions? Pretty slim, I’d say. And the more times you visit a location, the more you’ll see, and the better you’ll understand how the light changes and affects the area at different times of day.
Is this new version of the oaks, flowers, and shadows, better than the previous one? That’s hard to say. I’ll have to let them sit for awhile until I can look at them with fresh eyes. But I wouldn’t have that choice unless I tried again.
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by Michael Frye | Mar 28, 2013 | Light and Weather, Vision and Creativity, Yosemite Photo Conditions
Redbud along the Merced River, Merced River Canyon, near Briceberg, CA, USA
Last weekend I visited the Merced River Canyon, looking for flowers. As I wrote last week, there are more blooms than expected, given our dry winter, but it’s still a below-average year for poppies. The redbuds, however, were in great shape last weekend. Some were starting to leaf out, while others weren’t in full bloom yet, so I’d say it was just about peak for redbuds. More will start to leaf out every day, but there should still be many beautiful redbuds this weekend and beyond.
Sunday afternoon it was very windy in the canyon. I found the scene above, with a redbud against the flowing river, and waited for half an hour for the wind to die down before giving up and walking upriver. On my way back to the car it seemed that the wind had calmed a bit, so I set up my tripod again, only to realize that it was almost as windy as before. I waited another half hour, and finally it became perfectly, completely still for about a minute, and I was able to make this photograph.
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by Michael Frye | Mar 19, 2013 | Yosemite Photo Conditions
Oaks, lupine, and poppies in the Merced River Canyon near El Portal, CA, USA
Claudia and I drove up the Merced River Canyon west of Yosemite Sunday afternoon on a scouting mission, looking for wildflowers that were rumored to be blooming. And we did find some flowers – despite our dry winter. The redbuds are coming out all along the canyon; most are just budding, but we found some in full bloom, and the rest should get there within the next week or so.
Redbuds have deep roots, so they’re not affected by drought as much as some other flowers. But the poppies in this area are annuals, and dependent on winter rains, so I was surprised to see quite a few poppies blooming up and down the canyon. The display doesn’t approach last year’s, or the even more spectacular bloom in 2009, but any flowers at all seem like a miracle after our dry winter. And who knows – maybe the show will get better.
Right now the most eye-catching hillside of poppies is about a mile east of Savage’s Trading Post on the opposite side of the river. You can reach the base of this hill by driving to the end of Incline Road and continuing on foot for about a mile down the old railroad bed. But getting up among the poppies requires climbing a very steep hillside. (There are directions to Incline Road in my Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite, which most of you probably have, but if not the road is easy to find. Just cross the bridge at Foresta Road, about four miles east of Savage’s, then turn left along the river on Incline Road.)
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by Michael Frye | Mar 14, 2013 | Light and Weather, Vision and Creativity
Sunlight slanting across Crane Flat Meadow, Yosemite NP, CA, USA
A Trip to Crane Flat
Yosemite got some much-needed precipitation last week – over an inch total. I kept checking the radar and satellite images online, looking for an opportunity to photograph a clearing storm. Friday morning seemed promising, so I drove up to Yosemite Valley early, but found no snow. It looked like the snow level had been around 5,000 feet, higher than forecast. Worse, from a photographic perspective, the skies were clear and there was no mist.
Shortly after sunrise I noticed light striking a ridge near the tunnels on Highway 120, and on a whim decided to drive up to Crane Flat. I thought Crane Flat would at least have some fresh snow, since it’s at 6,000 feet.
Indeed there was fresh snow – over a foot of it. I parked at the Tuolumne Grove trailhead and walked along the plowed road. The sun had just reached parts of the main meadow, and I found some interesting small subjects to photograph, like tree-shadows on the snow.
Some shafts of sunlight slanting across the snow caught my attention, and then some mist began rising near the edge of the meadow, behind the shafts of light. I immediately recognized the potential to make an image that went beyond an abstract study of shadows – a photograph that had a mood.
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by Michael Frye | Mar 7, 2013 | Announcements
It’s finally here! My wife Claudia did a wonderful job of editing Yosemite Meditations for Women, finding inspiring quotes from writers like Lorraine Anderson, Susan Zwinger, J.K. Rowling, Diane Ackerman, Pam Houston and many others, and pairing the quotes with my photographs. I’ve included some sample pages below.
If you order directly from us through the “Add to Cart” button below, Claudia and I will both sign the book(s). Or you can order directly from the publisher, the non-profit Yosemite Conservancy, or from Amazon.
We hope you like the book, and really appreciate your support!
— Michael Frye
Yosemite Meditations for Women
Hardcover with jacket; approx. 6×5 inches; 96 pages
9.95
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by Michael Frye | Mar 5, 2013 | Yosemite Photo Conditions
Winter sunrise from Tunnel View. With the right conditions Tunnel View can be great in the morning as well as the afternoon
January and February are the wettest months of the year in Yosemite. The average precipitation for January is 6.5 inches, while for February it’s 6.7 inches, which makes 13.2 inches for the two months combined.
But this year Yosemite received only a tenth of that: 1.33 inches total for January and February. The Sacramento Bee says it’s the driest January and February on record for the northern Sierra Nevada.
Since storms have been so rare lately, any forecast that calls for precipitation is big news, and we’ve got just such a forecast this week. Meteorologists are predicting a medium-sized storm to reach Yosemite tonight and tomorrow, with lingering showers on Thursday and Friday. The timing is hard to predict from the current forecast, but it’s likely that we’ll see clearing storm conditions either late Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. With the showery weather there may be several clearing-storm events during that time.
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by Michael Frye | Feb 22, 2013 | Yosemite Photo Conditions
Half Dome and clouds, Yosemite NP, CA, USA
Many people, including me, had high hopes for the snowstorm that came through Yosemite on Tuesday. The forecast called for six to twelve inches of snow, so it sounded like we would see some beautiful snow scenes, and maybe even get to photograph a clearing storm. And some moisture might help revive Horsetail Fall.
Around sunset on Tuesday it started snowing at my house in Mariposa — first lightly, then heavily. In no time we had three or four inches of snow, and eventually got six inches, which is a lot for our 2700-foot elevation.
But the storm looked very compact on radar, and the precipitation didn’t seem to be reaching Yosemite. I called my friend Kirk Keeler, who lives in Yosemite Valley, and he told me that they had received only half an inch of snow.
Wednesday morning Claudia and I cleared the snow off our car and drove up to Yosemite Valley. We found an inch or two of snow — not a lot, but enough to highlight every tree branch. I saw many beautiful scenes with trees etched in snow, including the pattern of cottonwood branches below.
The morning was clear, but later some evaporation clouds started to appear, and they kept building. By the end of the day all the cliffs were hidden by clouds. But between 4:00 to 4:30 in the afternoon Half Dome and the clouds put on a great show. Half Dome would vanish completely, then reappear, wrapped in clouds and speckled with sunlight. I made the photograph above just before Half Dome disappeared for good.
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by Michael Frye | Feb 16, 2013 | Yosemite Photo Conditions
Horsetail Fall at 5:34 p.m. yesterday
It’s been quite dry in Yosemite since December, but there’s still some snow on top of El Capitan, and I thought that the warming weather over the last few days would melt some of that snow and increase the water flow in Horsetail Fall. But the flow is still disappointingly meager. I had a chance to photograph Horsetail last night, and I would say the water level is about the same as last year. The accompanying photograph was made from the Southside Drive area at about 5:30 p.m. yesterday. What water there is gets nicely highlighted when the light is just right, especially near the bottom of the fall, but… I wish the flow was better.
With low water like this I think the Southside Drive spot (Location 10 in my Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite book and iPhone app) works a little better than Rowell’s View near the El Capitan picnic area along Northside Drive (Location 1). From Southside Drive you’re a little further away, and you can see a bit more of the bottom of Horsetail Fall, which is the part that shows up best with conditions like this.
It’s supposed to be warm again today, so that might help increase the flow, but then temperatures are expected to trend downward tomorrow and Monday. On Tuesday forecasters are predicting the arrival of a snowstorm, which is expected to leave even colder air in its wake. The bad news is that the colder temperatures will slow down the flow in Horsetail Fall. The good news is that… a snowstorm is coming! And that, of course, brings the possibility of photographing snowy trees and cliffs, and maybe a clearing storm.
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by Michael Frye | Feb 13, 2013 | Yosemite Photo Conditions
Horsetail Fall and clouds on a March afternoon, Yosemite NP, CA, USA
I’m happy to be up and running after dealing with some computer issues, and can give you a quick report on Horsetail Fall. During a private workshop on Monday I had a chance to check out the water flow. I’d say it’s a little below average for mid-February, but definitely better than last year. Despite six weeks of mostly dry weather there’s still some snow on top of El Capitan to feed the waterfall, and temperatures are supposed to rise a bit this week, which should help melt that snow and increase the water volume.
The window of best light for Horsetail Fall starts this weekend and lasts about a week to ten days. If our dry spell continues we should see some clear skies at sunset during that time — an essential requirement for the Horsetail light show. But the long-range forecast calls for precipitation next Tuesday and Wednesday, so we’ll see.
As a reminder, I’ll be at the reception for my exhibit at The Ansel Adams Gallery this Saturday from noon to 2:00 p.m., and also at the Yosemite Renaissance opening reception the following Friday, February 22nd, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Yosemite Museum. I hope to see you at one of those events if you’re in the area!
— Michael Frye
Related Posts: Horsetail Fall Questions; The Best Time to Photograph Horsetail Fall, Revised
Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author and photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite, Yosemite Meditations, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, plus the eBooks Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom, and Exposure for Outdoor Photography. He has written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.
by Michael Frye | Jan 31, 2013 | Yosemite Photo Conditions
Low water, but ideal light on Horsetail Fall, February 20th, 2012
It’s almost February, so naturally I’ve been getting a lot of questions about Horsetail Fall. My thoughts about the best time to photograph Horsetail haven’t changed since I wrote this post last year: basically it’s February 16th to 23rd, or maybe a little beyond that.
This window was confirmed by my observations in 2012. There wasn’t much water in the fall last year, but we had a string of clear days, which allowed me to closely watch the light, and I think that February 16th to 23rd window is about right. You can, of course, take good photographs before or after that window; I’m talking about ideal light.
That ideal light requires clear skies to the west at sunset, something no one can predict at this point. And for good photographs the waterfall has to be flowing. Overall we’ve had a lot more rain and snow than last year, and Horsetail is flowing now. January, however, has been pretty dry, and there’s no precipitation in the forecast until at least next Wednesday. I think Horsetail will have more water this year than last, regardless of what happens over the next couple of weeks, but it would be nice to get some more snow on top of El Capitan soon to help feed Horsetail.
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