Sometimes the best place to be is in an open field under the shade of swaying branches. While in a slight breeze and in the warmth of the sun. With just the whispering wind to vanish and reappear again. If you listen carefully, it speaks to you.
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Shadow & Shade
Show & Tell
Today was an especially productive day. The whole effort was about transferring many wilderness photos over to my phone for more direct use with Instagram. Today, the total number of images downloaded, copied and transferred from this site was about 17,000. A majority of which was transferred to my phone in about 130 wilderness albums. My phone has a 256GB microSD and it serves as a storage card for numerous images to post and share. Both for current exploration and prior outings as well. Quite different than Pinterest as a comparison. In that all photos posted are only to be originals that I’ve captured over time. Much to learn, see and do.
Along the Merced River
November Rush
Many upon many photos of adventures were loaded onto this site over the last two weeks. Numerous galleries and journal entries of wilderness unsaid and explored. Yet there are still so many more to go. I will not let up until I’m current.
Perspective
“I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”
― John Muir, John of the Mountains.
The Unpublished Journals of John Muir
Feed & Forage
Wild creatures completely reliant upon the land. Either up near people and towns or in the backcountry, they’re found in different forms of life. Either as herbivores, carnivores, or both. Such as this deer grazing on the forest floor, the time it took for this creature to mature and grow in the wilderness is an experience worth contemplating.
Light Lessons
Having spent some time on Phlearn photography lessons today, I set out to develop a better idea about what it is to go too far with image processing. Where all photos get taken in RAW format but become processed by various tools and utilities in Photoshop CC. There are limits to understanding what actions get taken to meet specific objectives. Much of it about a cleanup, composition corrections, or slight adjustments in color, sharpness, and exposure.
Not for creativity or enhancement to make an image something it wasn’t. That has its place and I really want to start something there with random objects among images capture. More abstracts, people, and structures. More about light. More about the weather, mood, and atmosphere.
More spontaneity with images by everyday happenstance.
This is an image I spent time on to apply new principles learned. There are several before and after images compared. There are still issues with the image, but I’m not yet at a point where I can tell if those issues are normal. I believe there are issues I’m seeing with metering and there isn’t enough experimentation with program modes.
Still Standing
A short bit of experimentation with image processing. After learning somewhat more about place and context. To see further what bearing that would have. Rather than capture an image at face value, image processing has much to do with how you feel or sense the experience during the time while in a space of meaning. If there isn’t anything felt or valued, the composition and meaning can become flat or merely about technique. What you love and have passion for becomes lost in the repetition.
Presence of Mind
All those wilderness miles moved. Altitudes gained and lost. The wind, the cold, the wet, the color, and the beauty. All for the fear and the love of what comes by so much risk and hardship again and again. So what was the point? What is the drive and what do these seasons bring?
Far fared with far more to go. I fear it will never be enough and I’m okay with that.
Towers of Light
A few miles were explored today underfoot while at Mariposa Grove. Well above the trail entry and quite some distance away from folks seeing the grove just as well. A very large grove spread out a sizable distance.
Time well spent. Among the lupine and the bumblebees, the towering conifers and the light that brings us energy and life.
Point of Balance
Today we set out to the backside of Tenaya Lake just a bit above it. From the Eastside trailhead through to the Westside. Clear day and plenty of energy with more to spare. Over a decade of Yosemite exploration year over year and it is still largely a mystery to us.
Mile By Mile
Today was a new day in Yosemite with the wonder and inspiration that goes with it. Always a new perspective and place to explore. Step after step and place by place we were out and about to experience the absolute and incredible beauty of this place.
Tomorrow is a new day and a day of renewal. A time redeemed because these days will one day be gone. As all the others that went before them, but only in these places of beauty. Today I smiled and laughed more than I ordinarily do. Not because of those I’m with, but because of what and Who is here.
So what did I do with this time given? And with the decisions about how I choose to think and believe. Mile by mile and one step at a time.
Tomorrow, a new day. A fresh start with anticipation about what’s next. Up at dawn, tomorrow we go higher in elevation.
Piercing Light
Today’s time was spent at practicing the switch over from program to manual and back again with a one or two-stop change. Experimentation with various ISO settings, priority modes, and live-view. It was along about a 3-mile trail in Kings Canyon where the light was strong and unforgiving.
We went to Comstock Meadow where the forest beauty was complemented by the piercing light, even and pleasing temperatures, and strong aroma of the Sierra air. Today was time well spent to experiment, but to also again get a full immersion in these mountains I call home.
