"Half Dome From Glacier Point"

"Half Dome From Glacier Point"
© David A. Ziser

I’m channeling Ansel Adams with today’s post. A few years ago we were traveling out West and were weekending in Fresno, CA.  Some folks in California think there are better places to stay (they don’t live in Fresno) but for us and with Yosemite National Park a short one hour drive away, it was the perfect place to spend the weekend.

Our travels had us at Yosemite in mid/late May just as the waterfalls are flowing at their peak and, by luck, the road up to Glacier Point was open. WOW!  What a view! I’m a huge Ansel Adams fan and was in the mood to see if I could pull off a few “Ansel Adams” like images.  I didn’t have my 8x10 view camera with me so I had to settle for the 5D.

The light was looking good considering  that we had made it to the top of Glacier Point about 5:30 p.m. – almost the perfect time of day to get the image I wanted.  The rich blue sky with just a few wispy clouds made a picture perfect background for the view of Half Dome and the Yosemite Valley.

I had originally processed this image in Lightroom 2 but decided to “give it a go” again in Lightroom 4 and got a substantially better result.  Since it’s now so easy to tweak the full range of tones so easily in Lightroom 4, I finessed the image to exactly where I wanted it.  To me, the image seems to pop of the screen.  I’ve got great details in the full range of the image from the darkest darks to the brightest whites which, of course was the intent.

Camera specs:  Canon 5D Mark II fitted with 24-105 mm IS lens at 28mm, F13 @ 1/320 second, ISO 250.  Enjoy!  -David