Dogwood Flowers, Sunset Light. Yosemite Valley, California. May 3, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
The flower-laden branches of a dogwood tree hang above the Merced River in sunset light
In the evening we had pulled off the road near the place sometimes called “Gates of the Valley” (and occasionally by other names), but I was not especially interested in photographing the famous and iconic scene that many stop there to photograph. I wouldn’t rule out photographing it, but it would have to be an exceptional evening to warrant adding my contribution to the uncounted photographs that have been made of the Merced River, Bridal Veil Fall, and El Capitan from this spot. We stopped for dogwoods.
I have photographed the dogwood blossoms in this area plenty of times in the past, and at the right time there can be a lot of flowers here. This was one of those right times, since it seemed like an exceptional spring for production of dogwood blossoms. Initially I had my eyes on some trees on the north side of the road, but first I thought I’d wander east a bit. That turned out be a good direction to walk for several reasons – I unexpectedly ran into friends who were also photographing here, and I found one beautiful tree that was hanging its blooms out over the waters of the Merced River. I then headed back to the west, stopping to talk to other folks (it seemed like everyone was out photographing dogwoods on this evening!) and then continuing on past the pull-out, stopping along the way to make more photographs of dogwoods and the forest in evening light. Before long I ended up at a well-known bridge over the Merced – where, yes, I ran into more friends! When I got there I almost felt like I was ready to call it an evening, but then I saw the low angle near-sunset light coming up the river and recalled a bunch of flowers I had seen there earlier in the day. I thought it might be interesting to shoot almost straight into that light and use a long lens to “get close” to the flowers and to throw the background along the river out of focus. The result is a dogwood flower photograph this is a bit different from most that I shoot.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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