Capturing EPIC Moments in Yosemite | Landscape Photography Tips & Techniques

Yosemite National Park is a true paradise for landscape photography, and every season brings a different look and a unique set of variables. This year in California, we received a series of atmospheric rivers that resulted in one of the snowiest winters on record in the Sierra Nevada. And as that snow melted, it created dramatic amounts of water in Yosemite National Park, making the spectacular waterfalls that are there even more powerful, as well as creating hundreds if not thousands of new waterfalls. And so I decided to pack my bags and head out there for a little adventure. Little did I know this would be one of the most fun photography experiences of my entire life. I really hope you enjoy the video. Our journey starts with a beautiful perspective of Yosemite Falls. I decided to do a little bit of photography here of the iconic Yosemite Falls. It's been shot a million times, I've shot it many times before, but it's undeniably so beautiful. And we've been getting so much rain this year that just look at all that water flow, all the mist up there. So I'm using the 100-400 lens to really isolate some different patterns in there. I'm not really trying to focus on the whole waterfall, just the little sections that I find to be the most interesting. So this is at about 100 millimeters, and even at 100, it looks really cool. And I kind of like how I've chopped off the top of the waterfall and the bottom right here. So you've got this little section leading through, and then this sort of v-shape in here that helps to create a bit of symmetry. But watch what happens when I zoom in to even 400 millimeters here. Right in here, this little waterfall that pours down into the cliff, into the valley. So I think I might shoot this composition. I'm not going to bother with a long exposure or anything like that. My favorite part about this composition is if I zoom in here, you can see this little overhanging tree. I almost wish I had like a thousand millimeter lens to play with. I'm curious if I can crop into this, but I just love this right here. I'm going to go ahead and just do ISO 100. Let's do f9. Keep it simple. And that puts me at about 1 25th of a second. And then I'm going to set a timer because 1 25th of a second, if I do click on the shutter, the photo will probably be a little bit blurry. So I'm just going to make sure my timer is on here. Ooh, it might be nice to include actually a bit of the rock up top. So I'm going to zoom out. I think I'm going to try this one now as well. And I'm seeing a bit of motion blur. So what I'm going to do here is I'm going to take my f-stop down. I'm going to bump my ISO to 500. And now I can do a short enough exposure to where I can freeze the water. It was so cool to capture these different variations of the waterfall. And I think my favorite out of the bunch happens to be this close-up of the tree in the waterfall, which is really what ended up catching my eye in the first place. But now I'd love to hear from you. Which one of these four photographs catches your eye the most? Please let me know in the comments. After shooting these, I met up with my friend James for some lunch. And he has one of the coolest cooking setups I've ever seen with entire jars full of spices. And having a bit of lunch with him definitely beat the backpacking meals that I was used to. We noticed that a really intense thunderstorm was going to roll through the valley. And thought that the perfect perspective to see it would be tunnel view. So I set up my cameras in plastic bags to try and capture some time lapses of it. Unfortunately, the storm rolled over. No visible bolts. And we got absolutely soaked. But I tried to make the most out of the situation by shooting few images of the trees in the rain. And here's how those turned out. These were all shot on my 100 to 400 lens at about 400 millimeters. And I love how that rain created this beautiful layering to the trees. And it just goes to show even if you're caught in some of the worst conditions, you can still create some really interesting photographs. The next day, I ventured back out into the valley to see what else I could find. It's been raining. So I'm using the top of my car here for a bit of cover. And right now I've got the 28 to 200 on here. And let me just show you this real quick. So this is at about 28 millimeters. Just look at these incredible rock walls. If I zoom in here to about 200 millimeters, we can really start to isolate the shapes in here. And I've been kind of looking for different patterns in the rock wall. Different trees that are overhanging, different colors and shapes. So this was a really cool moment with this lone tree just kind of sticking out of the lifting fog. And in about a split second, this happened and then the image was gone. And if I was looking the other way, I probably would have missed it. So it's important while you're shooting to just stay vigilant, look around and be open to the different spontaneous moments that might happen. So if you haven't been to Yosemite National Park before, I'm sure you've seen some pictures. And let me tell you, pictures do not do justice to the sense of scale you get when you're standing amongst these rock walls. I mean, that's really what it's all about. Even if you have no intention of taking a photograph of this place, I mean, you should come to at least experience just how incredible this landscape is. Shortly after this, another intense rainstorm came through. And sure enough, as it passed, we got some beautiful lifting fog on the mountains. And here's what I shot. I love how mysterious and fantasy-like these scenes are. And I wanted to further accentuate that by kind of bringing a dark, moody processing style to these photographs. And similarly to that other image I had with the lone tree and the fog, as this mist was lifting from the storm, it would create different shapes each and every second. So I just kept watching and waiting. And every once in a while when I would see an interesting pattern, I would just snap a few photographs. And I spent a good hour just sitting down watching the scene unfold. All right, so I'm at the iconic tunnel view. I've got my cameras in these plastic bags here. If you're going to shoot in a torrential downpour, not a bad idea to get these guys. But I just have both cameras shooting a time lapse right now, ND filters on the front, so that I can do a slight long exposure just in case there is lightning. Look at the beautiful light right now. Absolutely incredible. Oh, I need to stop to see if I got that. And so here it is, the lightning striking down in the valley. Definitely a cool moment to witness. And I'm really happy I ended up getting this photograph here. So lightning photography is all about patience and persistence. At least for me it is. I spent about three to four hours waiting out in four different rainstorms to get this photograph right here. And it would have been very easy to just wander back to the car and think, well, this probably isn't going to happen or maybe it's not worth it. But when you end up finally getting the shot you were dreaming of, it makes all the discomfort worth it. As the rain clouds lifted and the sun pierced the valley, I ended up catching a rainbow, but it wasn't the rainbow I was expecting. Here's a photo of the bottom of Bridal Veil Falls with that immense water flow kicking up all of this mist that was then brought to life with this rainbow spectrum. I did the shorter exposure here and then I switched to a long exposure. And here's how that turned out. So I decided to get away from the crowds here for a little bit and went on a nice stroll through the woods here in Yosemite. I found something very cool that I want to show you guys. Check out this tree. Look at the texture in here. I absolutely love photographing these little scenes. They're so fun. And the best part about shooting this is there is no one in sight. No cars, just the leaves blowing in the winds. So nice to be alone out here. And it's been a little tricky to photograph because I decided to come to Yosemite on a weekend and a pretty nice weekend at that. And that was a huge mistake. I knew it would be busy in here, but I didn't know just how busy. I mean, I've driven through LA traffic countless times and this wasn't that far off, honestly. So I guess if I could give you one tip, if you've never been to Yosemite before, go on a weekday. Maybe even not a nice weekday, like one with bad weather so that less people show up. But go like midweek and you'll probably have a little bit better of a time. Let me show you what I'm composing here. Here's a 100 to 400 lens. I think I'm going to try and zoom in a bit. And I just love the patterns in here. Look at all these triangle shapes. I might have to do a bit of a focus stack here. But I'm going to see how f16 works on this. Make sure we're focused right in the middle. And then I might do a few focus points for the edges just in case. But I think f16 should do the trick here. Long exposure territory. I'm going to do about 0.5 of a second here. These photos may not be the most eye-catching or dramatic, especially compared to what I was already shooting on this trip. But shooting images like this really just sparks my creativity. And something I try and do on every single trip, regardless of the conditions I'm getting. With these bark images, I love how they almost look like topo maps from the top down. Later this evening, I wandered back up to Tunnel View for another rainstorm. This time there wasn't any lightning strikes, but we did get something pretty magical. And so here it is. A dramatic rainbow shooting from the sky right into the top of Half Dome. It's another photograph I've wanted to capture for years, but just never had the opportunity to do so. This was definitely another moment where I almost packed up my bags and left because it really didn't look like sunset was going to do anything. It looked like everything was blocked and that we were just going to get completely rained out through the evening. But sure enough, as I least expected it, the sky opened up and I could not believe my eyes when this rainbow appeared. For these photos, I kept it simple. I was using my 28-200mm lens. I wasn't sure how long this moment was going to last, so I didn't want to putz around with my tripod and try and dial in the perfect settings. I just wanted to make sure that this moment was captured, it was on my memory card, and I didn't miss it. So most of my Yosemite trip was spent wandering around with a few of my friends, James, Cody, and others. And to be honest, with a lot of the crowds, I didn't feel too comfortable pulling out my vlogging cameras. But I want to show you some of my absolute favorite photographs that I shot of this trip. And most of them focus on the immense power of the waterfalls here. I noticed a ton of birds flying around these cliffs, and so I made it a focus to try and sit there and wait for the birds to enter different positions, which ended up being tougher than I thought. I waited at this vantage point for a good hour just trying to capture birds in different positions, and I'm really happy with some of the results here. And I love how the swirling flow of the waterfall almost makes little faces and creatures kind of just dancing there in midair. If there's one takeaway I can give you from this video, it's really just to keep an open mind when you're on shoots like this, especially when you're photographing a place as popular as Yosemite National Park. Sometimes it's easy to say to yourself, well, this place has been photographed by everyone, including the most legendary photographers that have ever lived. So what am I going to bring to the table? What can I really do here? At the end of the day, it's okay to go to popular spots, even if you don't feel like taking a picture, just to go experience these incredible places. And sometimes you get conditions that make for a unique shot. But as long as you go to a place with an open mind, you can also express your creativity and get shots that are totally your own. Because every artist is different and everyone has a unique perspective. And I feel like we should all want to showcase that regardless of how popular a place is. So with that, I really hope you enjoyed this video. If you enjoyed it, please give it a thumbs up and consider subscribing to the channel for more. And yeah, I'll catch you in the next one.