Maddog Murph
Ethereal Sentinel
Traveling to Yosemite valley during the winter is a must see in a lifetime event, and I hadn't done it yet. I was watching the weather forecasts, and saw that a storm was coming in for the Christmas break, as luck would have it, I had decided to stay local in San Francisco this year, and the obvious choice of where to spend the holiday was based on the storm. The only question I had was how heavy it would be... I was expecting at least a foot based on forecasts, and as I was driving late into the night, I was a bit worried. Needless to say when I got to the pass on 120 there was a good amount of snow, but thankfully the snow plows had been running all day, and it was packed pretty well. The real danger isn't snow, it's ice, so this was pretty straight forward driving.
Coming into the valley into a snow storm at night by yourself can be somewhat unnerving, even for an experienced outdoorsman like myself. That being said I made a mistake not just shooting straight up to Tunnel view. Unbelievably, the storm cleared in the matter of an hour or two during the night. When I went up at 5 am it was nearly clear skies for astro, and I realized quickly that the tunnel floods the valley with an orange light, so night shots from Tunnel View are nearly impossible. I may post these shots regardless, as in a way, they are kind of cool and serene, even with the light pollution. But the real gem this weekend was during Christmas day and inspired by a post I saw by @rayophotography13 - I mean who doesn't know the famous sentinel bridge but something about that spot with a snow covering is just magical. So I took a wide view late in the day during the golden hour, and came out with what you see here.
EXGIF: B&W 10 stop, Polarizer, Nikon d810, 24mmf1.4 at F9, iso100, 30"
Ethereal Sentinel
Traveling to Yosemite valley during the winter is a must see in a lifetime event, and I hadn't done it yet. I was watching the weather forecasts, and saw that a storm was coming in for the Christmas break, as luck would have it, I had decided to stay local in San Francisco this year, and the obvious choice of where to spend the holiday was based on the storm. The only question I had was how heavy it would be... I was expecting at least a foot based on forecasts, and as I was driving late into the night, I was a bit worried. Needless to say when I got to the pass on 120 there was a good amount of snow, but thankfully the snow plows had been running all day, and it was packed pretty well. The real danger isn't snow, it's ice, so this was pretty straight forward driving.
Coming into the valley into a snow storm at night by yourself can be somewhat unnerving, even for an experienced outdoorsman like myself. That being said I made a mistake not just shooting straight up to Tunnel view. Unbelievably, the storm cleared in the matter of an hour or two during the night. When I went up at 5 am it was nearly clear skies for astro, and I realized quickly that the tunnel floods the valley with an orange light, so night shots from Tunnel View are nearly impossible. I may post these shots regardless, as in a way, they are kind of cool and serene, even with the light pollution. But the real gem this weekend was during Christmas day and inspired by a post I saw by @rayophotography13 - I mean who doesn't know the famous sentinel bridge but something about that spot with a snow covering is just magical. So I took a wide view late in the day during the golden hour, and came out with what you see here.
EXGIF: B&W 10 stop, Polarizer, Nikon d810, 24mmf1.4 at F9, iso100, 30"