Yosemite Fall Colors Photography Workshop 2018 Results

Yosemite fall colors photography workshop 2018.

The image above was a perfect calm fall day in Yosemite Valley. The clouds were just right when I arrived, but much less photogenic moments later. People don’t think of landscape photography as a time-critical endeavor, but as Ansel Adams observed,

“Sometimes I arrive just when God’s ready to have someone click the shutter.”

Ansel captured many moments that faded seconds later. No doubt there were countless moments that he missed, that we’ll never know about because they’re not in his photographic record.

I’ve missed more opportunities than I can count, by mere seconds. I have developed an approach to minimize this loss, that I’ll cover in a new blog post soon. In the meantime, please enjoy these images from my 2018 Yosemite fall workshop. You can see an album with over 40 Yosemite images from October 2018 here on Facebook. You can see an even broader look at my October 2018 images on Flickr.

One of the themes we’ve been pursuing for years are these night images of leaves drifting in the Merced River. The locations and currents change a bit each year with the water flow level and with any changes to the river bed from high spring runoff. The number of drifting leaves changes with where you are in the fall season, what types of trees are upstream and where they are in their cycle, and how windy it was earlier that day. The results are also affected by moon position and intensity, as well as other factors. So it’s a little different every time we go out, but we’re getting the factors a little more dialed in each time we go out, so we can predict the days and times to arrive at each spot to shoot in peak conditions.

I hope that you can join me in 2019. Here are some draft dates, registration is coming soon. Sign up for availability notification for your best chance to get the sessions you want!

Thanks in advance for your comments, shares and likes!