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| Above, a view of Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
For those of you who travel to national parks and are photography buffs, the following is something to keep in mind while visiting Yosemite National Park.
Although there are some vistas in the park that have been photographed millions of times, that should not dissuade others from doing so.
Rebecca Latson has an article in National Parks Traveler on just this topic.
She begins with:
Not too long ago, I read a portion of an interview with a young and upcoming adventure landscape photographer who dismissively remarked that all the iconic spots were over-photographed and over-published and not worth any further attention (I’m paraphrasing here). My response was to roll my eyes and mutter “Whatever.” You see, I truly believe that, no matter how oft-photographed an iconic vista may be, you should still get a photo of that spot, if you are there. Why? For one thing, because you are the one capturing that particular composition, and for another, what the heck is wrong with getting a photo of an awe-inspiring location, even if a gazillion others have photographed the same vista? To paraphrase another photographer with whom I heartily agree, a popular spot for photography is like a great restaurant. You go there because the food is great and you’re not going to skip out on it because many others have eaten there.
I wanted my first view of, and introduction to, Yosemite National Park to be Tunnel View. Talk about iconic! And I wanted it to be a sunrise view. If you’ve ever looked at other sunrise shots of this location, you’ll know that sunrise may not be that dramatic. Didn’t matter to me. That’s what I wanted. Now, I’ve written this before, and I’ll write it here again: even an iconic view can look different on a daily or even hourly basis, because of the time of year, weather, and quality of light. On the morning I visited, the haze from area wildfire smoke diffused the light, creating a soft, saturated deep pink glow over the valley while silhouetting the rock formations. It only lasted a few moments, but I happened to be there during those moments to capture a sweet version of an iconic vista.
To read more, go here.
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