Clark Range and Jeffrey Pine, Yosemite National Park

I am jumping back to a photo taken from my June trip to Yosemite National Park, on an evening when we went up to Sentinel Dome to shot during the sunset. As I've mentioned previously (with this post, and this one), the light on this particular evening was absolutely spectacular. With two cameras, two tripods, and beautiful light in every direction it was a struggle just to know where to focus. As the warm sunset light passed from this Jeffrey Pine, the distant Clark Range of Yosemite (still snow-capped in early June) were lit beautifully behind it. At the moment I had my 35mm lens on my camera, and my camera bag was too far away for me to bother going back for anything else. The usual approach of zooming with one's feet didn't work well here as I tried to get both the pine and distant peaks in the frame together, as the ground dropped away behind me. I found the most pleasing balance I could find and managed to come away with this, before turning my attention back to shooting large format again.

As some of you may know, I'm somewhat fascinated with this Jeffrey Pine. On my first trip to Yosemite, I had another remarkably beautiful sunset on Sentinel Dome, and came away with two photographs of this tree - two of my personal favorite photographs to-date (posted here). Now, I am anxious to shoot it again when I can, especially as it is decaying over time and won't be there forever (particular as people jump on it and break it, as I've seen them do). The tree was made famous in early photographs by Ansel Adams, or if you're following the farcical debate over the supposed Adams "lost negatives", also by "Uncle Earl". It died during a drought in the '70s, despite people hiking up buckets of water to sustain it, and it collapsed in 2003 before I had a chance to see it standing. I still think it is a wonderful photographic subject, and I find it infuriating to see people defacing it (Yes, family of 4 that visited on October 21st 2007 and actively encouraged and facilitated your children damaging the tree, I'm talking to you).

I had planned to post more photos from my July trip to Yosemite, but most of that work is in film, and with limited access to a scanner it may be some time before I can post any more.

Go to Yosemite!

Nikon D90 | Nikon 35 f/2 | f/11 | 1/13s | ISO200 | Tripod

See more related images in my Yosemite National Park Gallery.

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