Sunday, May 8, 2005

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! Thank you for giving me life.

I think I may have overdone it a bit, though. This morning when I awoke at around 5:00 a.m., I got up, drank a couple cups of coffee...and went back to bed. I think in athletes' terms I "hit the wall." Ran out of energy when my enthusiastic schedule of chasing light around this beautiful part of the world caught up with me. I slept through most of the morning in a series of naps, finally arising for good at 11:00 a.m. and leaving the cabin at noon.

Today, I again avoided Yosemite Valley and its springtime crush of weekend visitors, instead heading south on Highway 41 for about 15 miles to the town of Wawona. I read about a hike with a series of cascades along Chilnualna Creek, so I made it my assignment for today.

The day was overcast, punctuated by showers throughout the afternoon. The soft light worked well for the flowing water images (shot with a slow shutter speed to create the misty effect). I didn't attempt the full eight-mile round-trip distance with a 2,400-foot gain in altitude to Chilnualna Falls, instead focusing on the smaller falls and rapids only a quarter-mile from the trailhead. I try to follow a photographer's rule of thumb concerning hikes: If the trip produces more footsteps than photographs, that's just too much time spent walking.

As a bonus, Wawona also offered up a field of lupine flowers where I found a couple dozen compositions with the purple/blue blossoms.

Next to the lupines were a scattered patch of the tiny blue/white wildflowers shown at the bottom right. They're about the size of buttercups, and I have no idea what they're called, but the gentle blend from white to blue on the petals was too attractive to resist.

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