Pictures of Yosemite Park

Page Two

Anecdotal shots of Yosemite

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If you're still on 56k dial-up, Be Patient!! There are 65 or so glorious pictures of Yosemite National Park and surrounding area. Go make a pot of coffee. Answer your child's homework question. Feed the cat. Confirm your movie date. Find a quick errand and let these load.

Special Technical Note: Yes, I know, I have WAY too many shots on one page and many of you will have a problem downloading the entire collection. I am working on some options, but haven't started to work on it yet. I'll get to it... Till then, Internet Explorer seems to have a habit of stopping long downloads of multiple items, at least on my machine, so if only half or so of these photos load in your browser simply hit "Refresh" or "Reload" and the remaining shots should quickly fall into view.

A Personal Note
The photos will look better if you turn up the brightness on your monitor somewhat. Also, everybody says not to put your family members on your web site; nobody cares. True, but being as how this is a site based on personal experience, the people involved cannot be ignored. When I put Dad on there, all my other family members were whining they weren't included. So, what would YOU do in my position? Beside, it's my website and I'll post if I want to.

Noted landscape photographer David Brookover of Jackson Hole, WY. I had the pleasure of spending 3 hours standing in the freezing rain waiting for "The Shot" discussing photography with him. Time well spent. See brookover-muench.com

Photographers crowding for a spot to shoot Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View.

Night shot (obviously) of Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point.

Curry Village is in the lower right corner.

Observed in the Gift Shop parking lot.

A group of girls from San Francisco doing the Yosemite thing.

I am constantly amazed that people always think they have to mash their faces together to "get in the shot". Where does that come from??

This great shot was the result of proper use of a "fill flash" Be sure to use one when you take a picture at Tunnel View. The background is almost always brighter than the foreground due to the fact that during winter, the Tunnel View parking lot is in shade a large part of the day.

This is what you do at Tunnel View.

Getting married in Yosemite. Not for the financial faint-of-heart.

17-year-old Megan, from Baltimore, enduring her father's endless picture-taking of the tunnel view. She was very patient with her Dad; standing in the cold windy rain... in shorts!

The soaked father and freezing daughter about to move on to other Yosemite locals.

People pointing to the climbers on El Capitan.

Lying on my back looking straight up just to the left of the spine of El Capitan from the point in the approach at which ropes are first necessary in the ascent.

	This coyote was not afraid of humans in the least. The shot on the bottom was taken with a 55mm lens; he was only about 12 feet from me, showing no concern at all. Watch for them as you drive in Yosemite. They wander out in the road as if cars did not exist.

On another occasion, this Coyote sat there for 10 minutes waiting patiently for a handout; which never came. Feeding the animals is NOT the thing to do. It's a Federal Crime and punishable by heavy fines, but it's hard not to wonder what this Coyote's reaction would be to a big can of Alpo... He'd follow you everywhere you went!

The glowing eyes (cool effect!) was the result of using a fill flash.

These cretins were feeding the coyote all it could eat. Idiots like that should not be let into the park.

I chased the coyote away and explained to these fools not to feed the animals. I doubt they understood a word I said. And look at the small child getting this close to a wild coyote! Unbelievable.

Yosemite National Park

On the way to Vogelsang; these people were day-tripping out of Vogelsang High Sierra Camp. I was approaching Vogelsang Camp from Tuolumne Meadows (out of Lyell Canyon) when I walked up on these people and followed them for quite a while to find the right backdrop. I got lucky. :-)

Sitting around the campfire at Glen Aulin. Matt, Beau and Bob (I was taking the picture.) 30 sec. timed exposure 100 ASA film.

Yosemite is an artists paradise.

Lower Yosemite Falls

Actually, I don't know what to think of this shot; I was experimenting with my new digital camera and it looked neat when I previewed it, but now... I'm ambivalent.

Taken just above Chinquapin on Glacier Point Rd.

Highway 41 looking north just south of Fish Camp at the 4,000 foot elevation.

April 8th, 2001. The previous day it was sunny and 80 degrees. Carry your chains!

Some people paint, some people, well, sculpt.

Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls from Glacier Point

Wide shot of the scene above from Glacier Point.

El Cap (left) and Bridalveil Falls, late afternoon.

Close-up of the Mist Trail at Vernal Falls. It's a tremendous refresher on a hot day.

Larger view of Vernal Falls and the Mist Trail. You can hike right up to the top and stand where the water falls over the edge of the cliff just to the right of the water flow. (You can't see the guard rail and other people but they are there)

Late September at Vernal Falls. 'Nuff said.

The view from the first bridge. Many people come only this far and go back down the trail.

...and they mean it, too. If you have a wreck or slide off the road and you don't have chains on, it's an additional $750 fine on top of almost certain conviction of being at-fault, which obligates you to pay damages, etc. etc.

Yep, that's my car; do I have my chains on? Uh, I plead the Fifth..

April 21, 2001, believe it or not.

This only goes to show that in spring, anything can happen. Two days later it was 80 degrees.

This is the Park Ranger roadblock. If you do not have chains installed on your car, you do not pass. Carry your chains until around the first of May.

My Dad, Fred, on his first visit to Yosemite, early May, 1990 from the Tunnel Observation area. He audibly gasped as this vista came into view. Notice Bridalveil Falls, right, going full guns!!

The squirrels are absolutely fearless. They will literally steal food out of your hand if you're not vigilant.

My brother, Brian, can attest to the thievery. (He ate the rest of that sandwich to the horror of everyone watching!)

Attack of the Yosemite Squirrels!! AAAIEEEEE!!! RUN AWAY!!! RUN AWAY!!!

Bob is trying to protect his food. Luckily, most of the time, they do not travel in packs. I am NOT kidding. Although they don't bite, they will NOT hesitate to snatch food out of your hand or off your plate. And you thought you had to watch for bears. HAH! It's squirrels and mosquitoes that will give you the most trouble. (Taken from the observation area at the top of Vernal Falls.)

Vogelsang High Sierra Camp
10,150ft. elevation, 6.8 miles into the wilderness from Tuolumne Meadows. Foot or horseback is the only way in. By the way, this camp is slightly above the tree line, and is very open. It is an excellent place to do some star gazing. You can haul your telescope up on horseback, and ENJOY! (Virtually anything can be hauled up to the camp if you have the money to pay the packers.) The air is thin, and away from town-light. VERY clear, 360 degree view of the heavens. It's especially exciting during the meteor showers that appear every August.
180 degree composite (panoramic) view of Vogelsang Pass

Me, Dad (from Hendersonville, North Carolina) and my brother Brian (from Kerrville, Texas), 1990 standing in front of Yosemite Falls.

It was the first trip for both of them. We did the tourist thing that day...

Typical view available all along Lyell Fork of the Tuolumne River in Lyell Canyon on the way to Donahue pass out of Tuolumne Meadows.

Yes, the creek is full of fish. Beware camping along this area, as it is a favorite hang-out for bears.

Nevada Falls at top, and Vernal Falls below; shot from Glacier Point.

...and now, for the truly frivolous... and of NO interest to ANYONE outside my family...

Two hard-core Tar Heel fans; me and Greg Brittain (right), one of my best friends since we were 3 years old, who came out for an extended visit from Chapel Hill, standing in the Badger Pass Ski Resort parking lot after lunch. Circa 1988.

Yeah, I know, who cares; well, his mom was impressed...

Here's Greg and I at age 5 in front of the Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill, where Greg's dad worked for 26 years. We had run of the place!

(Maybe I should put this stuff on another page...)

My two grandsons; Jeremy, age 2, in the groovy hat, and Cody, age 7, restraining him from leaping over the wall at Tunnel View.

These are the kinds of photos you should take at Tunnel View. Take these shots carefully, as they are likely to show up on your end tables, dresser tops, walls, and wallets.

All image processing was done with Photoshop
For more information on Photoshop and to join a great discussion board, please go to:

Photographers!
If you have any photos of Yosemite you're proud of, and would like to post them here, I'll be glad to post them on the freelance contributors section. You will get full by-line credit with information on how people can contact you. (If you wish) There is no charge, it's completely free.

Here's how to contribute: Scan your photo and send it to me in an e-mail, or post it on a web page and let me lift it.

Technical specs: if you want to send me a completed shot, then send it as a JPEG with no more than 50% compression, 400 pixels wide. Try to scan it at 300 dpi (ignore what these "experts" tell you about 72 dpi) and save with 50% compression. Total file size should not exceed 50kb.

If you want me to do the processing, then scan your shot at 300 dpi, save as a TIF file, 700 pixels wide, and post it somewhere I can FTP it. (It'll be a large file, about 1 meg, but that's what you need in order to have something to work with when converting for the web.)

Go Here for the new Freelance Contributor's Page!

For information on the eastern Sierra
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