Picture of the week

Range of Light

The High Sierra mountain range of Shepherd Crest in the backcountry of Yosemite as illuminated by the reflected rays of the setting sun off the clouds of a lingering storm.

I explored this area as part of a backpacking trip into the north-eastern edge of Yosemite last week. This shot was captured from the seldom visited Virginia Canyon as reached by going over Mule and Summit Pass, starting at Virginia Lakes.  The Sierra backcountry of this area is quite lush right now, with many wildflowers present, and the streams running with a good flow rate.  Normally at this time of year this area would typically be more difficult to reach due to snow, but the region seems to be running about one month earlier relative to historic climate behavior.

With afternoon thunderstorms present each day, and getting quite heavy at times, helped create some more interesting lighting conditions for photography.  For this trip I used a Canon EOS 90D with an EF 17-40 L f/4 lens and a circular polarizer.  Due to weight contraints I decided to forego a tripod.  This ended up making some of this edge of the day photography more difficult in order to maintain sharpness while also getting some sense of movement with the water, or to keep the ISO at more reasonable level.  The shot above as captured at 40mm, ISO 1600, f/4, and 1/15 sec.  To help steady such shots I typically try to sit and rest the camera on my knee.