Homage to Ansel Adams

 

A few more shots from the US tour while I'm decorating and doing the whole Christmas thing.  Hardly had a chance to play with my 5D3 since I got it, thankfully these US photos were already processed for the most part and ready to post.  The top three are a humble attempt at a salute to Ansel Adams or more like a mutual sharing of the awe that Yosemite national park afflicted both of us, a truly stunning place that I could easily spend a lifetime photographing. 

 

The 4th and 5th are from the Grand Canyon national park, usually it's a sacrilege to remove the amazing colours, but I think these two particular shots benefit from the removal of the distraction of colour.  Note that I have more canyon shots to follow that will be complete with magnificent colour, they will appear at some point soon. 

 

 

 

ISO200, 35mm, f/9, 1/320s, -0.7ev, circ polariser (whoops, not sure why not ISO100) Cropped. 
Yosemite National Park, for once some midday Sun wasn't a terrible thing, casting shadows on the mountain face and highlighting the textures

ISO100, 35mm, f/7.1, 1/160s, -0.7ev, cropped
Morning Sun rays radiate through the rising mist and trees in a fleeting display of natures subtle beauty.  Spotted while driving into Yosemite Valley, I had just barely enough time to pull the car over, run 100m back down the road, take the photo and then it was gone.  Perhaps Usain Bolt might have managed a nicer shot, but I was happy with it.

ISO320, 130mm, f/8, 1/250s, -0.7ev
Not particularly my favourite shot, but a nice reminder of Ansels use of the rising moon in several of his images.  The original, taken at Mammoth Lakes, had crazy colours so vivid it was hard to keep from turning it black and white, to avoid the wrath of the many members of the Photoshop inquisition incorrectly murmuring "hhmmph, too much saturation".  Fortunately I like it's simple composition in mono anyway.

ISO100, 16mm, f/5.6, 1/250s, -0.7ev, circ plrsr
 An Eagle soars over a cloudy Grand Canyon, hopefully happy in its realisation that its living the dream!
The grazing sunlight, epic horizon-scape and passing model all make for a very imagination provoking image, for me anyway, but then I always dreamt of flying as a kid.   It was immediately tempting to break out the max-zoom with these guys drifting past, but it was so hard to capture the magic of such a vast environment with limited background, so I much preferred this than any of my 400mm captures. 



ISO100, 200mm, f/71, 1/500s, -0.7ev
Flipping the previous caption on its head, sometimes the best way of capturing an element of such a complex and huge landscape is with a zoom.  So swapping the usual 16mm for some zoom, I took this shot at close to sunset.  I'm always attracted to this style of shot in the UK, but usually with rolling hills, gates, trees and tractors, turns out the Grand Canyon is slightly different than Wiltshire ... and almost as beautiful!   ;o)