Dewey Point

There's an online magazine I admire called PHOTOGRAPH which is published quarterly by David duChemin who happens to be a photographer I also admire. This magazine takes advantage of the fact that, being in the pdf format, it can pretty much publish as many photographs as it wants and not really have to worry about production costs (okay, having done my share of layout and design over the years, I know that's a production cost, too, but I'm talking about printing up an expensive truckload of magazines not knowing if they'll all sell or not). So, it's a beautiful publication that really shows the breadth of its featured photographers' work.

Therefore, I was delighted to learn a photograph of mine is being featured in the latest issue, #8, in what they're calling the "Final Frame" (the second-to-last page). Here's a link to the magazine. It costs eight bucks, by the way.
http://craftandvision.com/collections/photograph

As for the picture itself, I took it at Dewey Point in Yosemite on a cold winter evening. Gloria and I had backpacked into this spot on snowshoes after a heavy snowfall, and were set up about a hundred feet from where I stood to take this shot. I have to admit I wasn't especially motivated to leave the semi-warm tent to go out as the sun was setting. In fact, I was lightly snoozing when Gloria pointed out that the sun was setting fast and there was color in the sky. I guess the thing about photography is there are times when the desire to potentially do something special runs up against the competing desire to be comfortable, and it takes a little effort and self-bullying to run out into the sub-freezing air just for a stupid picture. Of course, I managed to shame myself into wiggling out of my sleeping bag, put on my down parka, strap on my snowshoes and trudge out to the Point. And there was this magnificent sunset, made more special by how the light and dark clouds were framing these trees on the ridge top. For anyone who cares, it was shot with a Canon 5D MII, 28-70mm lens set at 70mm, f/9.5 and a shutter speed of 1/90. The camera was on a Gitzo tripod.

I also included a few other shots from the trip, just to show how incredibly beautiful the Yosemite high country is in the winter and well worth the effort to get out there, even if you have to freeze your ass off to do so.