Proof that I have to be able to laugh at myself sometimes… I spent 10 days photographing in the Yosemite backcountry at the beginning of this month. At one of the locations we visited there is a large and beautiful granite bowl with tons of potential photographic subjects. At one point I was high on a ridge above the bowl, photographing small features in late-day light, including exfoliated granite slabs, tiny trees growing from narrow cracks, colorfully stained rock, and more.
Partway through the evening’s work I found a little divot in the granite, in which a small clump of grass grew. It was surrounded by colorfully stained and glacially polished granite, with interesting cracks and texture cutting through it at various angles. The low angle sun raked across the short clump of grass and created a shadow that stretched across the granite surface. It seemed like an obvious photograph of the “intimate landscape” type, and I spent some minutes working it and making a series of photographs in both portrait and landscape orientation, and trying various crops of this little scene.
Although I had admired the file earlier while scanning through the hundreds of images I brought back from this trip, it wasn’t until today that I finally got to it for serious post-processing work. I opened it up, converted the raw file, brought it into Photoshop and began to work on it. I liked those angles angled cracks and the intense color of the stained rock, and the short blades of grass cast shadows across the polished granite in just the way I remembered.
But wait, what is that lumpy shadow below and to the left of the grass? NOOOOO! There is a marmot turd in the little cleft in the rock! You’d think that Your Intrepid Photographer might have seen that while composing the shot, but no…
Morning Musings are somewhat irregular posts in which I write about whatever is on my mind at the moment.
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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
Am I the only one who wouldn’t recognize marmot poo in the wild? It just hit me though. If you can recognize marmot poo Dan, it stands to reason that you have knowledge of a variety of poo. That could be the subject of a book. “Poo in the Golden Hour: Wild Scat in Pleasing Light”, by G Dan Mitchell.
As someone I know might say, “That’s an idea.” ;-)
Come to think of it, I probably do know more about marmot poo that one really needs to know….
Dan
I’ve seen this before, too. I’ve always assumed that marmots must just like to have a good view, whether for practical or aesthetic reasons I cannot say. But they sure to make piles sometimes.
Dan
LOL, on our last YNP hike, we day hiked up to Gaylor Lake and to the Great Sierra Mine. We ascended to a peak above the mine for a better (fantastic!) view and to have lunch. There was a sharp little actual peak. When we went up it, we found the top was completely covered with marmot poo!
It was like every marmot in the surrounding 10 miles had made it mandatory to go poo there several times a day. I’ve never, ever, seen so much marmot poo in one single area before!
Why would they pick the very tip top of all the whole area as their poo place? It was very exposed, all rock, no grass or other things to eat for quite a ways, and it was very hard to get to. Why there of all places?
I took a picture with my little camera, but it didn’t focus properly…and it was just a huge pile of poo, so I deleted it.
It was an amazing sight, just not one you usually see in the High Sierra.