Atmospheric recession

The title of this entry is a new term I learned this afternoon on a photographic walk with Mark Citret. There is a definite haze in Yosemite Valley this week, caused by a barely contained forest fire, the name of which I cannot remember (has something to do with the moon). This walk was a circuit beginning at the Yosemite Lodge to the base of Yosemite Falls (called Yosemite Wall this time of year, since there’s no water), around almost to the Ahwahnee Inn, into the meadow with views of North and Half Domes, through the Yosemite Village and back.

This photograph is an example of atmospheric recession. The details of the rim are not clear and there’s nothing the photographer can do about it. So, while one cannot help but include in the photograph the rock formations – which recede, they are not the image’s main feature, the path of the dry creek bed is.

In this example, what caught my attention is the sunlit tree branch.



And, here, Mark noticed that the shape of the trees in the foreground mimic the shape of the valley rim in the background.

Our morning was spent on a tour of the valley floor in an open tram. Quite nippy! The two hour excursion included two lengthy stops, one at Valley View looking back through Bridal Veil Meadow toward Sentinel Rock and the other at Tunnel View, a less stunning sight in the morning than the one we had yesterday as we arrived. The photograph below of El Capitan, in which you cannot see the many climbers at various stages in their conquests of this monolith, was taken from the tram during one of its numerous pauses. Our guide was full of information, as well as terrible jokes. It took me at least half the tour, but I finally figured out that he reminded me of Al in the late-1980s situation comedy Home Improvement.














This evening the Ansel Adams Gallery opened for a wine and dessert reception for our group. The curator offered a fascinating fine print tour, featuring a number of early Adams photographs. He also spoke about a few of Adams’ assistants, showing their work and how they were influenced by Adams. While the gallery is no longer the actual building used by Ansel Adams’ future father-in-law in the nineteen teens (floods over the years precipitated a move to higher ground), it is the business he started and that his daughter/Adam’s wife, Virginia, operated. It is now owned by Virginia and Ansel Adam’s grandson, making it one of the oldest family galleries in the country.

And finally, an unedited photograph I took at the bridge over Yosemite Falls Creek, currently dry. I like progressions and patterns and the railing supports caught my eye at the beginning of our walk. I went back after its conclusion to see that I could do with it.