Showing posts with label Yosemite Landscape Workshop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yosemite Landscape Workshop. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Slightly random post!

This morning I was doing some digital housecleaning, and found that I never posted the last few photos from the Yosemite Landscape Workshop last March.  I got sick in April and a whole lot of things went by the wayside...as you can see, only one blog post made it out that month!

So in an effort to mend my ways, here are those last few Landscape Workshop photos. :)  Enjoy!


Erin, on the snowy meadow boardwalk leading across the valley to Yosemite Falls


Sentinel Bridge


Erin again...because she's cute :)


Amanda, across the river at Happy Isles, hard at work with a rock-o-pod ;)


I love the bright green moss and the soft green-brown tones in the water and rocks.



  

Moss macro...there's such beauty in the tiny details.


Sometimes getting The Perfect Photo means getting into some interesting shooting positions... 


Pretty wildflowers along the road, on the way back to the Bay Area


Playing paparazzi in the grass...Bethany probably has a very similar shot of me... ;)


We finished our trip in San Francisco at the Bay Bridge, the Presidio, and of course Ghirardelli.  Here's a fun sight at the Presidio:



Yay for some really awesome photographers!  :)


Parting "Blue Hour" shot...I just love the light at this time of day...so much gorgeousness.


That's all for now, folks!  This weekend I'm excited to be photographing Byron and Rebecca's wedding in Canada, so stay tuned for highlights from that.  There's also a slide show in the works from another recent wedding and some new website developments that I'm *very* excited about...more on that soon!  :D

- Kelsey

Discovering beauty...

Kelsey Schweickert  |  San Francisco Bay Area wedding photographer
Visit my website  |  Email me  |  Follow me on Twitter  |  Like my photography on Facebook

Friday, May 20, 2011

Some "fun stuff" and "pretty stuff" from our Yosemite Landscape Workshop

This last week has been so full of fantastic photos, I don't know where to start!  But a while ago (before I got sick, ha) I did promise more photos from the Yosemite workshop, so those will get priority.  Not to mention that they're pretty awesome photos of really awesome people in a thoroughly awesome park!!

First, you should meet the cast of characters (and yes, we are characters).  Here we are posing very seriously after dark on a ridge overlooking Yosemite valley.  (Unfortunately, I moved, so I'm kind of blurry.  But blurry is kinda my norm...so there ya go.)


And here's the photo I annoyed you all with last night on Facebook.  Don't you want to see what they were shooting? :)



Here it is!  We found this beautiful cascade as we exited the Park, on our way back to the Bay Area.  Perfect spot to work on blurred-motion, using neutral density filters to slow our shutter speeds.



The day before, we found a lovely mossy-green wall near lower Yosemite Falls and did a few portraits...here's Amanda! :)


She has great expressions.  :D


We found this beautiful late-afternoon rainbow in the clouds of mist below Bridalveil Fall...


Here's something that half bothers me, half makes me laugh.  Have you ever noticed this tree before?  It shows up in a TON of the images taken from the Tunnel View, near Inspiration Point.  You can often spot those goofy flat-topped branches in people's photos, over on the right side near Bridalveil Fall.  Next time you see a photo from this famous spot, check the tree!


Night view from the same spot...with my fisheye.  (Presumably that silly tree is here somewhere...just too dark to spot it!)



The obligatory crazy waterfall-hair self-portrait.  (Not too crazy this time.)


The students picked up on all my bad habits.  They take self-portraits all the time now...


...and they have a similar infatuation with sun stars...


...and they can frequently be seen taking photos of their feet.  Hahahaha.


They even do it when they have snowshoes on.
(We snowshoed partway out the Dewey Point trail -- it was a blast!)


Food makes us happy.


Erin is a true photographer...she'll do whatever it takes to get that awesome photo!  (This can't have been a comfortable position!)





Sometimes we use tripods...


...and sometimes, we use bag-o-pods.  (My faithful Tamrac Velocity 9 has served me well in this capacity for several years.  It's the real reason I carry a camera bag around -- to put my camera ON, not IN. Haha.)


(Sometimes we also use friend-o-pods, but I didn't take any photos of that phenomenon.)

We did lots of blurred-motion water photos:


...and stopped-motion studies.  This is one of my favorites.  I love these colors, and how the image caught the water's motion.



A pretty pathway at Happy Isles



This woodpecker was very busy making holes in the oaks in Sentinel Meadow.


The little guy (and his friends, I guess) have been quite industrious, as you can see...



Perched on a rock above the Merced River, Cathedral Rocks in the background...




I'd been trying to decide which highway to take home, and asking the Lord about it.  Finally decided at the last minute to take highway 140.  In true Father-who-loves-us fashion, God had a surprise waiting for us!  As we headed into the central valley, we came around a bend and there was a huge patch of stunning wildflowers.  (I think I'll post a few more in the Facebook album.)


We went to San Francisco that afternoon, drove down Lombard Street, and made good use of certain famous items for sale at Ghirardelli Square.  We finished the day on the Embarcadero with some "blue hour" shots of the bridge...but I'll save those last couple images for another post.

And the workshop ended.  And we returned home with many CF cards full of photos.  And we downloaded them all and were very happy.  The end.  ;)





- Kelsey

Discovering beauty...

Kelsey Schweickert  |  San Francisco Bay Area wedding photographer
Visit my website  |  Email me  |  Follow me on Twitter  |  Like my photography on Facebook

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Yosemite workshop...part I!

We left my home Friday morning and headed for Yosemite, but we took our time getting there...because there were some beautiful almond orchards along the way.  I figured we'd be past the peak, but I was praying the Lord would keep some of the trees blooming for us.  And he did.  We spent a lovely half-hour in this orchard discovering beautiful things!



Erin


Bethany


(Sorry, you know me, can't help a foot photo... ;)


We also hit In-N-Out burger, a requirement of Erin's.  And found some cute shadows to photograph.  ;)


It was sunny as we drove through the central valley, but the closer we got to Yosemite, the thicker the clouds got, till it was completely overcast by the time we reached the Big Oak Flat entrance to the park.  The place where you can normally spot Half Dome for the first time was totally cloudy.  No views.  But as we drove down towards the valley, the clouds began to clear...so we went straight to Tunnel View near Inspiration Point.  And what a view!!


Unpredictable.  That's landscape photography.  And any sort of photography, really!  You have to adapt to the situation, find the best light, expect the unexpected...essential skills for any photographic genre.  I love photographing landscape for a whole lot of reasons -- but one important reason is, it keeps my skills sharp!




It's funny, we talk about those "perfect sunny days", but clouds can make things way more interesting.  I love the mystery in these images.  (Oh yes, there's a future blog post here, the analogy's too good to pass by.........)



I had a blast working with each one who came!  Good times upon good times!  ;)  Here's Amanda, at the Tunnel View (where these last few shots were taken):


And we ended the day (and, err, started the next day) with some awesome night photography...next post!


- Kelsey

Discovering beauty...

Kelsey Schweickert  |  San Francisco Bay Area wedding photographer
Visit my website  |  Email me  |  Follow me on Twitter  |  Like my photography on Facebook