As we glide into summer a look back to many years of images made in the high country of the Yosemite  seems to intrigue especially since as a result of the terrible California drought, the opening of the Tioga Road and Tuolumne Meadows is record setting early this year!

Since 2002 I’ve only missed one season hiking and photographing while visiting the High Sierra camps in various combinations both with workshop groups, on ranger led expeditions and for the last couple of years with my friend and workshop assistant, James Morrissey of the Nature, Wildlife and Pet Photography Forum website. Sometimes spending a night at each on loop hikes or a few days in each of the 6 camps. In 2005, the same year of the Katrina hurricane, for the first time in history the high camps did not open due to heavy and late snow pack. Our workshop did a series of day hikes that year. Don’t we now long for that situation again!

Let’s start our high country journey, as most do, in Tuolumne Meadows. At nearly 9,000 feet in elevation it is the starting point for most back country outings. Serviced by the Tuolumne Meadows lodge and considered one of the High Sierra camps even though it can be reached by vehicle, it provides the world famous Yosemite canvas tents along with the spirit of the back country.

Last year our hike was interrupted by forest fires which are a constant threat in any year and an occurrence that I have often experienced. As we prepared to embark on a four day journey they were already evacuating hikers from some areas. Four days later our hike had to be aborted one camp short of our intended outing.

In this image captured the afternoon before our departure  along the Tuolumne River I was struck by several emotions and tired to sum all of them up in one image. The tranquility of the winding river through the meadow. The intense feeling of danger as the fires raged out of control and the excitement of the unknown in what the future would hold for us.

I needed to find a composition that showed all of these and based my focal point on the very dimmed reflection of the sun in the river and then finding lines that led to the sun itself. As a very small part of the composition, I let the color and mystic of Cathedral Peak in the distance set the mood.

A difficult exposure was based on meter readings from the foreground and the brightest portion of the clouds and then set an exposure between the two readings. Since the angle I choose made a polarizing filter ineffective I used instead a Singh-Ray color intensifier to heighten the earth tones and then added a 3 stop Singh-Ray reverse graduated neutral density filter since the brightest light I needed to hold was on the horizon. Keeping the grad line out of the trees was a challenge.

More to follow as we hike the Yosemite!