Yosemite is definitely one of my favorite places to visit, especially in the winter. Since we’re going to be out there in a couple weeks I thought I’d get the juices flowing with this image of Valley View or Gates of the Valley as it’s also called.
As I mentioned in a previous post called Yosemite Winter Morning, winter is a special time in Yosemite. No crowds and gorgeous scenery after a snowfall. It can be cold but that’s what keeps the crowds away. I think the color palette is enhanced in the winter and who doesn’t like snow capped mountains? After a fresh overnight snowfall there are so many interesting sights to take in you don’t know where to begin. Especially when the sun comes out and brings some good light into the scene. The Merced River is a dominant feature in the park and this particular viewpoint has all these nice snow-capped rocks just after a snowfall. You also can look right into the valley past El Capitan on the left and Bridalveil Falls on the right. When all these elements come together with good light it’s just magic.
I took this image a number of years ago with my large format film camera. This one happens to be on 8×10 color negative film. The resolution that’s possible with a huge sheet of film is just incredible. My Nikon D810 is a 36 Megapixel camera and it does an outstanding job. When 8×10 film is properly scanned with a drum scanner however, the resolution is in the many Gigapixel range. File sizes so large they drop Photoshop to its knees. I scanned this image on my Epson flatbed scanner at only 1200dpi but the final Photoshop file is still over 3Gb! Large format equipment is cumbersome though and hiking with it in your backpack can be a real workout. Now that we’re going to be travelling full time and without a darkroom it just doesn’t fit in my workflow anymore.
Yosemite and the Sierra Mountains have received some pretty good snow storms already this season so I’m hopeful this trip will produce a couple nice images. We only have a few days in the park so we’ll have to focus on just a few locations. Not ideal but it’s better than not going. So, fingers crossed for some snow and some good light. But then again, any day in Yosemite is a good day.
