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Olmstead Point

Posted by
Don Smith (California, United States) on 22 October 2008 in Landscape & Rural.

My favorite landscape books of all time is Mountain Light by the late Galen Rowell. One of the images in the book was of Yosemite's Olmstead Point during an early fall snowstorm. As a frequent visitor to Yosemite, I've come to realize how rare that image was because CalTrans shuts down Tioga Pass at the first hint of snow - at least they do nowadays. This image reminded me of Galen's although it was shot from a different angle and there is obviously no snow; however, I've always wanted to accentuate the split granite and be able to hold the glacial erratics and jeffrey pines against a monotoned sky. I was able to accomplish this feat a couple weeks ago as the Pass reopened after the first snow of the season had temporarily shut it down. The flat light held a range of less than 4 stops of light. I was helping co-teach the Gary Hart Eastern Sierra Fall Workshop and we decided to take our participants to Olmstead with the hopes of a clearing storm shot looking south towards Half Dome. The thick clouds did not allow for us to see even an outline of the famous icon, so we all worked this scene. Gary and I were ecstatic - not sure how the workshop participants felt - or if they even realized how rare an opportunity this was. If you would like to join Gary and me on one of our western United States workshops, please visit my website at http://www.donsmithphotography and click on the Workshop tab.

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III 5/2 seconds F/22.0 ISO 200 25 mm

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