Untamed Images Blog

    Adventures in Nature Photography

    Browsing Posts tagged Yosemite

    Autumn Black Oaks

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    The changing leaves of the black oak trees in Yosemite create a rich palette of yellows, golds, and greens which, along with contrasting dark trunks, present a host of stunning photo opportunities.

    Canon 5D Mk II, 70-200mm f/2.8L at 123mm, 1/10 sec at f/5.6, ISO 400

    One of my favorite images from autumn 2012, this picture captures the unsung beauty of Yosemite. It’s not always about waterfalls and granite monoliths. This photograph was captured in the early morning, before any direct sunlight had made its way into the Valley, from a vantage point within El Capitan Meadow.

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    A bobcat launches a sneak attack on its prey in Yosemite National Park's Cook's Meadow.

    Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, EF500mm f/4L IS USM at 500 mm, 1/800 sec at f/4, ISO 1600

    This bobcat was one of the highlights of my trip with Alison to Yosemite back in November. We first spotted it boldly coming up the path towards us early one morning in Cook’s Meadow. I was scouting landscape photographs with a wide angle lens on my camera, but upon seeing the bobcat, I sprinted back to our van to get my long lens. Read the entire post…

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    Black oak trees bordering Cook's Meadow in Yosemite National Park exhibit their golden fall colors on a crisp November morning.


    Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM at 27 mm, 1/100 sec at f/16, ISO 200

    A large dose of credit goes to my wife, Alison, for inspiring me to capture this image. As I was following a cooperative bobcat around Cook’s Meadow with my long lens, Alison wandered among the nearby oak trees featuring beautiful golden leaves. She took a quick grab shot on her iPhone of a composition similar to that of the above image and I was very intrigued when she showed it to me. A few minutes later the bobcat disappeared into the undergrowth for a nap, so I swapped out my 500mm lens for a wide angle zoom and set about reconstructing the iPhone image as I remembered it. After waiting a while for the skies to clear of the seemingly ever-present contrails, I fine-tuned the positioning of the camera to obtain a starburst effect from the sun, and I was able to create an image that conveyed the feeling of standing within this dazzling grove.

    Stay tuned for a blog post featuring the aforementioned bobcat in the near future.

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