Home  Donate  New  Search  Gallery  Reviews  How-To  Books  Links  Workshops  About  Contact

Yosemite in Winter
Saturday, 26 February 2011

22   24   25   26   27 February 2011

 

The snow was great today: the cold front went through last night after the storm, so everything was cold and dry, exactly as Dave Wyman had planned.

 

Bridal Veil Falls

Bridal Veil Falls, 8:47 AM. (1963 LEICA M3, LEICAMETER MR-4, 1960 LEICA ELMARIT 90mm f/2.8, 39mm LEITZ Or orange filter, f/9.5 at 1/13, casual use of tripod, frame 21 of roll 1 of Kodak T-Max 100.)

 

Tunnel View

Tunnel View, 9:01 AM. (2009 LEICA M9, ISO 160, 1/125 at f/18, 1934 LEICA ELMAR 50mm f/3.5, no filter.)

This isn't a misprint: this was shot with a lens made in 1934! It looks swell; here's the full-resolution JPG.

These old lenses are 100% perfectly compatible with the newest LEICAs with a simple adapter. Even the EXIF and auto exposure work perfectly, exactly the same as the newest lenses.

It is completely uncoated: the glass has bright reflections from it just like window glass. It was built before pretty much anything. Lens coatings, the transistor and nuclear bomb wouldn't be created for another 14 years or so, yet this lens has been around to record it all happening. TV had barely been invented, and wouldn't be practical for decades. My mom had yet to be born.

This sample of lens was made in 1934, but it was a design first introduced in 1925.

This doesn't look so bad, but most people wouldn't even bother to shoot with a lens this old. They'd be prejudiced and think it was soft, soft in the corners, or have dull colors or contrast without even bothering to try it first. I have no idea why some people get all worked up about needing a new lens every decade, much less every six months. The plastic lenses of today won't even be working in 20 years, much less compatible with anything even if they were.

Geeze. Most Sigma or Tamron zooms have more lateral color fringes than this 77-year-old lens, and the new Zeiss 50mm f/2 Planar ZM has more distortion than this 1934 lens!

 

Monolith

Monolith, 9:44 AM. (2009 LEICA M9, ISO 160, 1/750, 2003 LEICA ELMARIT-M 90mm f/2.8, no filter.)

Not bad, but let's ask ourselves what's important in this shot, and emphasize it by cropping a little:

 

Monolith

Monolith, 9:44 AM. (2009 LEICA M9, ISO 160, 1/750, 2003 LEICA ELMARIT-M 90mm f/2.8, no filter.)

Much better. See how cropping makes the important stuff bigger? That's the whole idea! Never expect the viewer to figure it out; FART for goodness' sake.

Full-resolution 8MB © JPG from DNG.

 

Monolith

Monolith, 9:50 AM. (1963 LEICA M3, LEICAMETER MR-4, 1957 LEICA SUMMICRON 50mm f/2 with close-focusing range, f/8 at 1/125, 39mm LEITZ Or orange filter, no tripod, frame 25 of roll 1 of Kodak T-Max 100.)

 

River as Seen from Stoneman Bridge

River as Seen from Stoneman Bridge, 10:30 AM. (1963 LEICA M3, LEICAMETER MR-4, 1957 LEICA SUMMICRON 50mm f/2 with close-focusing range, f/4.7 at 1/60, 39mm LEITZ Or orange filter, no tripod, frame 27 of roll 1 of Kodak T-Max 100.)

 

Icy Falls

Icy Falls, 12:11 PM. (1963 LEICA M3, LEICAMETER MR-4, 1957 LEICA SUMMICRON 50mm f/2 with close-focusing range, f/5.6 at 1/60, 39mm LEITZ Or orange filter, no tripod, frame 31 of roll 1 of Kodak T-Max 100.)

 

Snowy Rocks, Yosemite

Snowy Rocks, 12:25 PM. (1963 LEICA M3, LEICAMETER MR-4, 1960 LEICA ELMARIT 90mm f/2.8, 39mm LEITZ 1 yellow filter, f/6.7 at 1/250, no tripod, frame 32 of roll 1 of Kodak T-Max 100.)

 

Falls

Falls, 12:31 PM. (2009 LEICA M9, ISO 160, 1/360, 2003 LEICA ELMARIT-M 90mm f/2.8, no filter, no tripod.)

 

Tree and Snowy Rocks in River, Yosemite

Tree and Snowy Rocks in River, 1:12 PM. (1963 LEICA M3, LEICAMETER MR-4, 1965 LEICA SUMMICRON 35mm f/2, 39mm LEICA GGr yellow-green filter to darken the sky and try to lighten the green grass in water, f/9.5 for optimum sharpness at 1/125, no tripod, frame 35 of roll 1 of Kodak T-Max 100.)

I use a LEICA because it's handy. An iPod touch has a crappy camera, but used well, makes the same photos:

Tree and Snowy Rocks in River, Yosemite

Tree and Snowy Rocks in River, 1:13 PM. (2010 iPod Touch, ISO 80, f/2.4 at 1/2,139)

 

Snow on Rocks

Snow on Rocks, 1:18 PM. (1963 LEICA M3, LEICAMETER MR-4, 1960 LEICA ELMARIT 90mm f/2.8, 39mm LEICA GGr yellow-green filter to try to lighten the green grass, f/11at 1/125, no tripod, frame 36 of roll 1 of Kodak T-Max 100.)

 

Snow on Cascading Rocks

Snow on Cascading Rocks, 1:20 PM. (1963 LEICA M3, LEICAMETER MR-4, 1960 LEICA ELMARIT 90mm f/2.8, 39mm LEICA GGr yellow-green filter, f/6.7 at 1/250, no tripod, frame 37 of roll 1 of Kodak T-Max 100.)

This photo is all about the series of diagonal lines which keeps flipping your gaze left and right as you fall through the photo from top to bottom, like a pinball machine. It's like a waterfall made of snow and your imagination.

Therefore, I did a lot of burning and dodging to lighten the diagonal snow lines, and to darken the surrounding rocks.

 

Walking Tree, Yosemite

Walking Tree, 1:22 PM. (1963 LEICA M3, LEICAMETER MR-4, 1960 LEICA ELMARIT 90mm f/2.8, 39mm LEICA GGr yellow-green filter, f/9.5 at 1/250, no tripod, frame 38 of roll 1 of Kodak T-Max 100.)

Not bad: that's the end of just one roll of film for these past several days. Let's jam another roll in the M3 and keep shooting.

 

Trees in front of a Mountain with Fog, Yosemite

Trees in front of a Mountain with Fog, 1:31 PM. (1963 LEICA M3, LEICAMETER MR-4, 1960 LEICA ELMARIT 90mm f/2.8, 39mm LEICA GGr yellow-green filter, f/11 at 1/125, no tripod, frame 2 of roll 2 of Kodak T-Max 100.)

 

Falls, Yosemite

Falls, 1:50 PM. (1963 LEICA M3, LEICAMETER MR-4, 1961 LEICA ELMAR 135mm f/4, 39mm LEICA GGr yellow-green filter, f/5.6 at 1/250, no tripod, frame 6 of roll 2 of Kodak T-Max 100.)

 

Trees by Le Conte, Yosemite

Trees by Le Conte, 2:06 PM. (1963 LEICA M3, LEICAMETER MR-4, 1960 LEICA ELMARIT 90mm f/2.8, 39mm LEICA GGr yellow-green filter, f/4.7 at 1/125, no tripod, frame 7 of roll 2 of Kodak T-Max 100.)

 

Trees by Le Conte, Yosemite

Trees by Le Conte, 2:06 PM. (1963 LEICA M3, LEICAMETER MR-4, 1960 LEICA ELMARIT 90mm f/2.8, 39mm LEICA GGr yellow-green filter, f/5.6 at 1/125, no tripod, frame 8 of roll 2 of Kodak T-Max 100.)

 

Firefog, Yosemite

Firefog, 12:31 PM. (2009 LEICA M9, ISO 160, 1/750, 1961 LEICA ELMAR 135mm f/4, no filter, no tripod.)

This was pretty gray as-shot, so it took excessive resuscitation in Aperture to make it look as I envisioned it.

 

Ice Forest, Yosemite

Ice Forest, 5:25 PM. (2009 LEICA M9, ISO 400, 1/90 second hand-held, LEICA SUMMICRON-M 50mm f/2, no filter.)

I snapped this in the frigid 25ºF air while about 249 photo hobbyists drank beer and crowded around one spot, hoping to make the same photo that everyone else snaps when the setting sunlight hits the waterfall in the Firefog snap above.

 

Frozen Rhythm, Yosemite

Frozen Rhythm, 6:11 PM. (2009 LEICA M9, ISO 800, LEICA SUMMILUX-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH mit Floating-Element group, 1/24 hand-held at about f/1.4.)

 

The Mountain Room and The Mountain, Yosemite

The Mountain Room and The Mountain, 6:14 PM. (2009 LEICA M9, ISO 200, LEICA SUMMILUX-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH mit Floating-Element group, 1 second hand-held at about f/1.4.) Since rangefinder cameras have none of the flipping mirrors of SLRs, skilled people can shoot them at 1 second with a wide lens, and shoot at night with fast lenses and low ISOs as I've done here. I'm not carrying no stinking tripod!

This shot is all about the bright, warm area at the bottom coming forward, and the dark, blue surround pushing back.

This shot is pretty much as-shot; at this time of dusk, the colors just do this.

 

Forest Matrix, The Mountain Room, Yosemite

Forest Matrix, The Mountain Room, 7:12 PM. (2009 LEICA M9, ISO 800, LEICA SUMMILUX-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH mit Floating-Element group, 1/3 second hand-held at about f/1.4.)

 

NEXT DAY > >

 

22   24   25   26   27 February 2011

 

Home  Donate  New  Search  Gallery  Reviews  How-To  Books  Links  Workshops  About  Contact