Today was a very interesting day. We didn't see a lot of new sights. We didn't hike any great new trails. We didn't shoot areas
all over Yosemite. In fact, we slept in a bit and made only two stops the entire day. The first stop was to shoot Yosemite Falls across
Sentinel Meadow.
Although I've been in this meadow hundreds of times, I never tire of shooting across the meadow
to Yosemite Falls in the distance. The meadow is a deep, rich green and the trees are sporting their new growth.
The falls aren't running full, but we can hear them from across the valley. Even with all the people around,
there is something peaceful and tranquil about the scene.
Our neighbor in the campground had mentioned a solar eclipse would occur this afternoon, but without an Internet connection, we had no way to research it. We drove over to the Visitor Center to get the details of the time of the eclipse. We had no problem finding information about the eclipse...except for the time. They had special posters and brochures ready, but none provided the time. We finally talked to a ranger who said it would begin at 5:30 and reach the maximum at 6:30. We were originally heading for Sentinel Dome, but we decided to change our destination to Tunnel View. Sentinel Dome might be cutting it a little close and parking could be a challenge. We found some nice comfortable rocks to sit on and proceeded to watch all the people at Tunnel View. English was the exception most of the afternoon. It seemed that most of the tourists were from Japan or Germany. There were lots of large families trying to squeeze into a single shot sitting on the wall with Yosemite Valley in the background. There was the unusual guy with the special holder for his point-and-shoot so he could take his own picture wherever he went. He had quite a following and was trying to figure out why his setup didn't seem to be working quite right. In the end, he led his group off to hike up to Inspiration Point.
Our main entertainment was photographing all the families that asked us to use their cameras to shoot the group shots. They figured anyone sitting with tripods must know what they're doing. Everyone was very polite and seemed genuinely appreciative of getting their group shot. After all, how bad can a shot be with El Capitan, Yosemite Valley, and Bridalveil Falls as a background? We photographed lots of young couples, a few families with at least 3 generations in the shot, and even a few individuals who were traveling alone.
We eventually moved on to our own photography. I set up my panorama attachment on my new Noveflex ball head and started shooting panoramas. I started with 8-shot panoramas and then moved on to HDR panoramas. It was good practice, but the sky was flat blue, and there was nothing that made the scene stand out.
As I was finishing up, another photographer began setting up his equipment. He had the ultimate in panorama equipment. He had the GigaPan Pro that automatically shoots the individual images that will make up the panorama. He wanted detail on El Capitan, so he was shooting with a 200 mm lens. That meant setting up a panorama made up of 216 images. That's 8 rows of 27 images. It was pretty amazing. It took about 20 minutes to take all 216 images. He and his wife were from Vermont, so we shared the places we enjoy in California, and he talked about his favorite places in Vermont (as well as how much he liked the GigaPan).
I decided to shoot a time-lapse video with my 7D as the solar eclipse affected the view
from Tunnel View. I set up my camera to shoot one image per minute. It took a couple of false starts, but I finally got everything set up correctly.
The change in the lighting during the eclipse was so gradual, that we really didn't see a change until the eclipse
was nearly at its maximum. Then, we noticed the trees in the foreground were no longer brightly lit,
and the general scene was more subdued. It was only after I put all the
images together to create the time-lapse video that we could see the full effect of the solar eclipse.
After the eclipse ended, we decided to hang around and shoot the stars over the Valley. It was a beautiful evening, so why not hang out and enjoy it. Most of the people left after the eclipse, but there were a few of us die-hards who stayed for the stars. The cars exiting the tunnel and the planes flying over Yosemite provided a challenge, but it was still a nice night to be out shooting. Tomorrow, we leave for home, so this is our last chance to shoot for this trip.
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