travels without a tripod

waiting for the tourists; Yosemite in November

I am in the land of big scenery.

Magnificent in every way……….in November, when it could be snowbound
but is not. There is snow on the high ground, but not on the roads.

Which is lucky really, because if there was snow we would have had to hire snow chains to enter the park or the rangers wouldn't have let us in. And the car hire company wouldn't have let us use the snow chains if we had needed to…………. which created a bit of a dilemma, which has been resolved by the absence of snow. Crisis over.

The sun has shone relentlessly since our arrival, making landscape photography challenging, unless you want the sort of picture postcard views that would grace a calendar in a tourist shop. Which I do not, but am ending up with just because the sky is blue.

blue skies and sequoia trees

I left my tripod behind as this is  a family holiday, not a photography workshop or tour. Just me and my other half, cruising around in a shiny red hire car, no snow chains allowed.

The sun sets behind the mountains very early in Yosemite valley, surrounded as it is by towering rocks, so artfully captured by Ansel Adams and many more since. By 4pm it is pretty dark, and without a tripod I couldn't get away with less than 640 iso, really not done if you are a proper landscape photographer . Could I get away with it?

No. Not really. The are grainy and the colours are weird.

So I just have to accept that I have come home with images that are good enough as a reminder of my trip, but not special.

Good enough for a small book that serves as a holiday photo album. But not much else.

Life is full of compromise. Which is a small price to pay when spending time in one of the most beautiful natural landscapes in the world.

autumn in Yosemite valley

more autumn in Yosemite

thicket

and the inevitable grass picture from down by the river behind Yosemite Lodge