“Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” -John Muir.
Happy Birthday John Muir. And thank you. So so much. Your legacy may very well be the grandest of them all.
So this is a little uncharacteristic of me, but this time, I’m going to try to go easy on the words and let the images tell the story. Yosemite is just one of those places…the type that no matter who or what you are, will be affected by it. It’s simply impossible to turn that final curve on Highway 41 and exit that 1/4 mile tunnel 30 miles past Yosemite National Park’s South Entrance, without feeling like time slows down, at least for a split-second, to work out whether or not your eyes and senses have failed you as you try to come to grips with the sheer scale and beauty of the surreal valley that lies before you. Or as you drive up Glacier Point Road for 16 miles through dense pine and redwood forest before turning on that final S Curve just before Glacier Point and essentially slamming head-on into the world’s most magnificent chunk of granite, Half Dome, as it rests gloriously upon its perch, keeping a watchful eye over Yosemite Valley 3000 feet below. I was fortunate enough to be able to spend last week in Yosemite with my cousin, her family (including her photographer husband Stephen Chiang), and my aunt – the exact same crew that put up with my shenanigans last year on the Big Sur trip that I wrote about here. While our cabin was at Bass Lake, about 45 miles from the Valley, we spent every day within the borders of the park. Each day proved to be quite different than the day before. On the first day, we were treated to a mild snowstorm, leaving a nice blanket of fresh powder through the park for the next 24 hours. After those first 36 hours, it turned immediately to Spring, as the clouds cleared and the sun shone down upon us for the remainder of the week.
This afforded us the ability to enjoy everything from a showing of “The Spirit Of Yosemite” in the Museum’s Yosemite Conservancy Theatre to a snack at the stately Ahwahnee Lodge and a stroll through the Ansel Adams gallery in the village, leaving us with ample time and inspiration to visit all the usual suspects along with a few spots and moments we were able to call our own.
We began with a quick stop at Bridalveil Falls before indulging in a leisurely stroll through the meadow across from the village, where I came face to face with a family of deer as they grazed just before the Yosemite Valley Chapel for an impromptu photo shoot as the sun made it’s way behind the valley walls. On our way out of the park, the final rays of sunlight were hitting Bridalveil Falls just perfectly, so we had to stop at the Merced River to snap a few shots on our way out of the valley back to the cabin. Not a bad first day!
The next couple of days were consumed with activity after activity that was sure to keep the kids busy and curious. As my cousin and her family biked through the valley, my aunt and I decided to hike our way to Mirror Lake. Then we spent a good half of a day making our way the Mist Trail to Vernal Falls, part of the John Muir trail. The falls were spectacular. We arrived as they were perfectly lit by the early afternoon sun and the perpetual rainbow displayed herself in all her glory. We then strolled through Mariposa Grove, where giant sequoias that are as old as Jesus, some of which that had trunks that reached 100 feet wide and that have survived close to 100 fires, towered proudly above us all.
We managed to make it to Glacier Point two evenings in a row for sunset. The first night we barely made it in time due to missing the turn onto Glacier Point Road, which, actually turned out for the better as this gave us our one and only bear sighting of the trip (I apologize in advance for the blurry picture, but, well, it was the best I could manage given the circumstances and our distance at the time), and to everyone’s delight, my cousin’s older daughter, the 8 year old, practically begged us to return the next night, our final night, for a proper showing. After a relaxing 4-mile ride on the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad‘s #10, the largest narrow gauge Shay steam train every built, we gladly obliged.
Anyhow, needless to say, photo opportunities greeted us every step of the way. Below is a gallery of some of my favorite images from the week, all of which were taken on either the Samsung NX1 or the new Samsung NX500, their latest 4k shooting mini-beast. That video below? Yup…shot on the NX500 with it’s kit 16-50mm PowerZoom lens (make sure to hit that little gear thingy icon and choose 4K). And to check out Stephen Chiang’s captures, many of which showcase his family and children in a very heartwarming and uniquely idyllic way, check out his Instagram feed. That’s one you’ll want to follow.
So yeah, I know, I said I’d try to go easy on the words, but…well…uh…yeah…
Canvas prints of some of these are available on my Crated site or my Fine Art America site. If you don’t see the one you like, please don’t hesitate to contact me and I’ll prepare it for print for you.
Also, click here for a background wallpaper for your mobile devices from that trip.
For more blatherings and nonsensical incoherencies: Instagram: @wasimofnazareth Ello: @wasimofnazareth Google+: +WasimMuklashy
If you support the kind of work I’m doing and the things I’m sharing, please consider ‘subscribing to me’ on Patreon.com. Yup, subscribing to ‘me.’ You can even set the price. Literally, $1 per month if you want. No joke, your little helps me a LOT.
I know I’m still not completely caught up on the Sri Lanka adventure posts, but I’ve spent the past week in Yosemite National Park and wanted to throw a lil’ bit of that paradise your way. Here’s an image from Wednesday afternoon in Yosemite Valley, just as the sun began it’s descent. I dropped the sucker in as my background and wanted to share it with you. Here it is in case you want it. Just CLICK HERE for a high enough resolution version sized for your phones or tablets.
I’ll be posting more words and images from this trip, as well as the conclusions of the Sri Lanka voyage, soon. Until then, if you want more things, here’s some stuffs and whatjiggernots:
Instagram: @wasimofnazareth
Ello: @wasimofnazareth
Google+: +WasimMuklashy
Last week saw the 24th Annual International Los Angeles Photographic Art Exposition, otherwise known as Photo LA, take over the entire 2nd floor of Downtown Los Angeles’ L.A. Mart Building. Over 15,000 visitors checking out more than 50 gallery exhibitors from all over the world over the course of 3 days. And with it, I had the honor of having one of my images, ‘Don’t Turn Your Back,’ taken in Yosemite, selected to be displayed by the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) Los Angeles chapter. To see this happen under the same roof as works by people like Catherine Opie, Carsten Ingemann, Jacob Gils, Sid Avery, Ida Wyman, Joe McNally, Carleton Watkins, and Alec Byrne was an INSANELY humbling and incredible once in a lifetime experience.
This was also the first time I had a chance to see my image in a gallery setting, and I must say…it’s something I wouldn’t have a hard time getting used to! Better yet, the image actually sold. I cannot thank Renee Kushnir enough for her purchase of my art and hope that it is able to bring her at least a degree of the joy it gave me to create it. Thank you Renee! Much love. And thank you to Yasmin Alishav and Jordana Sheara and ASMP Los Angeles for this incredible opportunity. And thank you to Photo LA for an incredible show. And thank you so much to my folks Adnan and Salwa for showing up to support, and to my brother Shadi, and my cousin Shereen and Rami and Jayson Joseph and Jake McGee, and Corrado Caretto and his beautiful wife Victoria. Meant so much to me to see you all there. Maybe we’ll get to do it again next year!
For more of the things and what stuffs: Instagram: @wasimofnazareth Ello: @wasimofnazareth Google+: www.Google.com/+WasimMuklashy
For the lucky ones who managed to snag an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, I figured I’d throw together a collection of my images sized and optimized to serve as background wallpapers to grace the face of your new device. There are several scenes covering various locations from Yosemite to Venice to a gorgeous Grist Mill in Washington. Hopefully there’s something in there that’ll tickle your fancy. The first image will always the iPhone 6 version, and the second one next to it will be the iPhone 6 Plus version. Find the one(s) you want, Right-Click and Save Link As. That should save the full size version. Or you can click on the image, and it will open in another page and you can save it from there. Or, if you’re on the device itself, click the one you want, and then when it shows up full screen, hold down a finger on it, and then choose ‘Save Image.’
And in case you’re new to manual photography, which is a new feature now available on iOS 8, make sure to check out my post from earlier this week, What Apple iOS 8 Manual Camera Controls Means For The Masses.
And for more of my madness and other happenings and what-nots and billy-bobs and jigga-ma-things: Instagram: @wasimofnazareth Twitter: @wasimofnazareth Google+: www.Google.com/+WasimMuklashy Facebook: www.Facebook.com/WasimOfNazareth
All images other than the Yosemite images were taken on Samsung NX30 and NX300 mirrorless cameras. The Yosemite images were taken using a Nikon D7000 before I switched to mirrorless as part of Samsung’s Imagelogger program.
As I was standing in Yosemite’s Tuolumne Meadows a few weeks ago, awaiting the sunset, I was on a sandbar off to the north side of the Tuolumne River east of bridge leading towards Soda Springs. As I stood there framing the shot, I got the elements I liked, and the light was just about to be perfect. The focus of this one was the light dancing upon the top of Cathedral Peak and Unicorn Peak and the trees on the ridgline below it. As the light started to bounce off those treetops and the peaks, I began to snap a few frames. I was delighted.
About 2 minutes in, a lone deer decided to wander up and pose directly in the bare patch of grass in the foreground of my image. I damn near lost my mind. It looked at me, I looked at it. It turned away and just stood there. There was no doubt in my mind this was all about vanity, and it wanted its portrait taken. Who was I to argue? I immediately adjusted the exposure and
Snap.
Got the bugger.
As soon as the shutter fired, he looked back at the water, up at the mountains, and walked away. It was like a gift from the Yosemite gods.
After the deer left, I was still noticing the light on the top of the ridge line, so went back to my original plan, sans deer, and fired a few more frames.
When I got to the computer to check out the images, I noticed elements from each frame that I loved. In the one with the deer, I loved the light bouncing off the tops of the trees and, well, of course, the star of the show, the deer him/herself. But what I liked in the images I took after were the sharpness of the ridge-line that was lacking in the frame with the deer because I was focused on that element of the composition. Problem is, this frame didn’t have that second row of light on the trees, and well, it didn’t have the deer. This is were I thought to myself, it’s about time. Time to get my feet wet with composites. And this seemed like a relatively easy enough situation to do it. I was going to take that deer and the lights on the treetops from the 2 minutes earlier, and put him in the frame with the sharp mountain tops.
My first attempt was to try to use the selection tool. Nope. Then I tried the magic wand. Definitely nope! Then I took the two layers, put the deer-less one on top, and tried using the eraser where the deer was. Absolutely nope!!
At this point, I knew I was going to have to break down and figure out how to use a layer mask, but I had never really done it before. I first checked out a few tutorials on YouTube before I ended up consulting with my brother, who, as an animator and illustrator, has had some considerable experience in Photoshop. He walked me through it, and it seemed to work out perfectly. Here’s a brief video describing the method that I used to get the resulting image you see at the top of this post:
The image was shot on a Samsung NX30 and a Samsung 18-200mm lens.
And for more of my madness:
Instagram: @wasimofnazareth
Twitter: @wasimofnazareth
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This is just one of those places. You hear about it, you see pictures of it, you read about it, and if you’re a nature-lover or photographer, or better yet, both, you’d be hot damned if you that’s the one you didn’t get to cross off your bucket-list.
Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park.
The mystique around this place runs high. It’s been called a ‘photographers paradise,’ as well as one of ‘the most difficult places to photograph.’ The thing about it is, it’s closed off most of the year. The picture-perfect gentle alpine meadow bordered on all directions by soft granite domes and spires, and blanketed in pines and wildflowers and berries and natural grass, lies in the highest of high countries in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, so Tioga Road, the only one that passes through, is snowed in on average of 7 months a year, and on top of that, the meadows are ‘meadowed’ for only about 3 months of the year (as a local park guide so eloquently put it). Furthermore, those 3 months just so happen to be the absolute busiest months of Yosemite National Park’s schedule, but, as stated in Part 1 – Mammoth Lakes, there was no way I was not going to seize this unexpected and completely spontaneous opportunity to make my way to this alleged garden of Eden.
I pulled onto Tioga Road at about 4pm, with about 4 hours before sunset, which I figured was enough time to at least explore a bit and find a place I was going to call camp for sunset. As I wind my way up and through the Tioga pass from Lee Vining on the Eastern Sierra side, I slowly rolled through the sort of landscape that dreams and fantasies are made of, the kind of place you thought only existed in cartoons and psilocybin – crystal clear sky blue cascading streams and rivers snaking their way through saturated green grasses and tress of various sizes and varieties, flanked by sun soaked rolling hills comprised of rolling granite domes and lodgepole pines.
As I drove through at about 10 miles per hour, I literally found a tear in my eye – I was in absolute awe of some of the most striking, insanely unreal scenes that would trump a psychedelia-soaked dream. I won’t lie. I was overwhelmed. How the hell was I going to only spend 5 hours here?
I figured since I only had this afternoon, I’d stop by the visitor center and ask for a few tips. The nice lady was hesitant at first to give out one of her favorite spots and secrets, but after she found out I was a State Park volunteer, she figured she was in safe territory and loudly ‘whispered’ a tip. I thanked her kindly, and went to follow her tip as I made my way around a particular dome. I hiked in for about 35 minutes before realizing I had no flashlight to get back out, and this was bear country, and I was finding myself in a maze that wouldn’t be ‘fun’ to try to scramble out of after dark. While the landscape was absolutely breathtaking as I followed the river through a forested part of the meadow, I had a scene in my mind and this was taking me away from it. I wasn’t going to be able to get the sunset colors with the snaking stream through the meadow I had envisioned. After a quick glance at the clock, I had to make a decision quick as I was less than an hour from sunset. I hastily decided to hike back out, and head down the road to a more open part of the meadow and just hope I can find something I’d be happy with.
I truly felt so overwhelmed, that I was absolutely certain that I wasn’t going to get a shot because I made the fatal mistake of running around looking for the best one, but made peace with it when I just figured I’d come back the next day now that I have a bit of the lay of the land. And I certainly wasn’t going to cry about that. Plus, I may not get the shot I had envisioned, but, I’m in Tuolumne Meadows at sunset, I’m sure as heck not walking out with nothing!
So I slowed my roll, took a breathe, and decided I was just going to enjoy this one. I hiked into the riverbank, sat on a rock to soak in this paradise, and right at that very moment, is when I found and saw my shots. All within striking distance of where I started walking around like a crazed half-bearded madman. The most surprising was a shot that ended up being one of my favorites, it was well after the sun had set, and I had already packed my gear and was using my phone’s flashlight to find my way back out to the road. That’s when I ran across the purple twilight light reflecting in a small pond and playing with the shadows of the landscape just off the path. I had to do it – I pulled out my gear, set up, and spent about another 30 minutes after dark playing right there in that area.
So here’s a bit of a gallery of my favorite images from that afternoon, all of which were shot on a Samsung NX30 using a Samsung 18-200mm lens.
For Part 3, Mono Lake, click here.
And in case you missed A Surprise Journey Through The Range Of Light – Part 1 – Mammoth Lakes, click here.
And for more of my madness: Instagram: @wasimofnazareth Twitter: @wasimofnazareth Google+: www.Google.com/+WasimMuklashy Facebook: www.Facebook.com/WasimOfNazareth
“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination.” -Albert Einstein**
From me to you, There’s This Week’s Monday Kick In The Yahoo!
**
Feel It!
So this is what was supposed to happen. My landlord’s friend has a condo up in Mammoth. He wanted new pictures of it in order to prepare rental listings for the coming winter season. It hasn’t been rented in several months, so I figured this would be a good week to go. I got the green light from him, from the landlord, and off I went, driving along the Eastern Sierras of California…the ‘Range of Light.’ A relatively painless drive to spend a few days in a part of California I’ve never been to, take some pictures, get some writing and some work done in the solitude of the Sierra Nevadas for a few days, and then head back home.
Well, let’s just say, that got derailed in a big way, spontaneously turning this into much more of an adventure than I expected.
I showed up to the condo, and was immediately taken aback by how beautiful it was. How this wasn’t being rented, I’ll never know. Three immaculate bedrooms, a gorgeous living area, and it was big. I walked out the back patio door and it lie RIGHT on a river looking up at the sunset. I grabbed my tripod, slammed the camera on there, scarfed down my now cold meatball sandwich from John’s Pizza Works, and started snapping away. As the sun dipped behind the Sierras, I noticed that the light was going to make for a spectacular twilight shot of the condo. It was essentially isolated, with a river running by it’s side, and the golden pink skies were beginning to turn that lust-worthy shade of deep blue. I set up my tripod for the shot, ran in the house to turn on all the lights, and…(insert record scratch sound here…) a woman was standing inside.
Apparently she had the place booked with her family, and for some reason, the owner didn’t know, and the property management company failed to notify him of that. Who knows what kind of tomfoolery is going on but, well, that’s neither here nor there. What’s here is that I was just thrown out into the streets of Mammoth with nowhere to go. As I was cursing my luck and wondering if I’d killed someone in a past life, I sat in a parking lot, debating whether or not to make the 5-hour drive back to Los Angeles. I was finally able to get a hold of my landlord, the one who helped set it all up, who was just as surprised as I was. They agreed to get me a room at the Mammoth Mountain Inn for the night so we can get things sorted in the morning.
As I checked into the hotel, I noticed a flyer for Yosemite’s Tuolomne Meadows on the front desk, so I grabbed it. I’ve been trying to make it there for years as the roads are only open a few months out of the year (they’re snowed in most of the year as it’s the high country). When I asked the desk agent how far it was from where I was standing, he said no more than an hour.
Done.
Was NOT planning on this, but I’ll be hot damned if I’m 60 minutes from a place I’ve been trying to make my way to for almost a decade and NOT turn this into an impromptu trip to Yosemite National Park’s Tuolomne Meadows.
In any case, here I sit, room 114 at the Mammoth Mountain Inn, getting more and more excited for whatever the next few days have in store for me. I forgot how nice it is to just let go and see what happens. This should be interesting. And above? The only shot I was able to snap before being sent to the streets.
For Part 2: A Surprise Journey Through The “Range of Light” Part 2 – Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite, click here.
And to find out how to get sunset and star-burst shots like the one above, click here.
All images in this series were taken with a Samsung NX30 and a Samsung 18-200mm lens.
And for more of my madness: Instagram: @wasimofnazareth Twitter: @wasimofnazareth Google+: www.Google.com/+WasimMuklashy Facebook: www.Facebook.com/WasimOfNazareth
In honor of Apple’s latest operating system announcement, OS X Yosemite (which, if you know me, that word alone gets me excited) I figured I’d rehash some of my images from my Yosemite adventures last year. In case you don’t want to (or can’t) wait until the fall for the official release, after the ‘read more’ break below, you’ll find a few of my favorites optimized for your desktop backgrounds, and below those are the iPhone-optimized versions. To save them, just right click and choose ‘Save Link As…’ And as always, if you’re on Android or another platform, I don’t want you to feel left out. Just contact me and let me know what your device is and I’ll format it for you.
Also, for a brand new mobile phone background from a recent trip to Yosemite, click here. And for the rest of the images from my more recent Spring 2015 trip back to Yosemite Valley, click here.
And for more of my madness:
Instagram: @wasimofnazareth
Ello: @wasimofnazarethGoogle+: www.Google.com/+WasimMuklashy
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/WasimOfNazareth
Enjoy…
Please keep in mind, I still hold the copyright to these images. They are provided for you to download for personal use only. If you would like to license one of these images, please contact me.
