Richard Hinton, Photography

We all want to go there. Don’t we? Isn’t it on your photographer’s bucket list? Where would you start? Yosemite presents a conundrum for us as photographers. We want to go there because of all the iconic images we’ve seen. The word Yosemite is synonymous with Ansel Adams. There is the root of the problem. The most iconic of Ansel’s images were taken in locations which are still easily accessible. The scenes have changed a bit over the years, but you can for example go to Awahnee Meadow, and stand somewhere near the same place where Ansel made his famous Moon Over Half Dome image, but what are we really doing? Essentially we are just making derivatives of famous shots we’ve seen. I am not saying that are no original shots left in Yosemite. For example look at Michael Frye’s Yosemite Portfolio http://www.michaelfrye.com/port/yose/yosemite1.html .

So what makes his images different, and what can we learn from that? It’s the environmental conditions isn’t it? When I went to Yosemite, I was hoping for something special to happen. But it’s tough right? If you have two days to spend in a place like Yosemite it really comes down to four opportunities. You get two mornings and two evenings. I am not suggesting that you can’t do any photography between sunrise and sunset, but as far as capturing a special image of the famous rock formations it does I think really come down to that. Certainly there are lots of other photographic opportunities there. For example I was there in the height of the Dogwood blossoms, but when we think of the essence of Yosemite we think of those giant vertical rock formations.
On top of all that you have the first time factor involved. The first time we go somewhere it’s more difficult to come up with the totally original images. I think that’s especially true in a place like Yosemite which is so over whelming on your first visit. I believe the more times you visit a place the better your images get. We all want to make a nice black and white image of Half Dome. I have mine. The next time I visit Yosemite I don’t have to concern myself with that. I didn’t quite get the El Capitan image I wanted because the widest angle lens I brought with me was a 16mm. Next time I’ll bring a wider lens. With more time and repeated visits you can get off the beaten track and find new images.

So, to wrap up this rambling mess of thoughts, just let me say I went to Yosemite. I took some pictures. I covered the basics. Nothing really special happened with the environment to give me an extra special atmospheric condition. I covered the basics. Who knows, if I get back to Yosemite sometime maybe something magical will happen, maybe not. Photography is like fishing: just because you get out on the lake at 5 AM, it doesn’t mean you are going to catch anything.