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Yosemite valley, so far, has been one of my favorite places on the west coast. But I have had very little luck with conditions every time we visited the valley. Due to the location of the valley, smack in the middle of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the sky tends to be either plain or windy with choke-full of clouds. The first time we visited was immediately after our move to San Francisco, and to be brutally honest, the trip generated only two images that truly stood out.
The second time we visited, timed perfectly with a storm that passed through the valley. We saw clouds piling into the valley as we were shooting the sunset at tunnel view. So we didn’t have much hope for the rest of the weekend, but we decided to soldier on with our plan. We had planned the Valley view photo for the evening, but a very overcast sky and pretty drab conditions greeted us at this classic location. I have about 40 shots here where I persisted with my original plan.
But after a while, I got frustrated with the results and started to think about the conditions. I noticed that both the river and the clouds were moving fast due to the windy conditions. Thankfully I had enough experience with the Lee Big Stopper to know what conditions suit the particular filter. I loved the golden color of the long grass and the contrast it made with the steel blue-grey ambient light. The 10-stop ND filter also helped me bring out some of the details in the movements of the clouds. Changing the type of photography according to the conditions helped me create a decent photograph even in pretty drab conditions.