We're Off to see Yosemite!

Finding Interest in the Uninteresting

I've started to take more consideration while doing my photography, and in part I have found more inspiration in things that average people would tend to overlook. 
One can happen upon things that can become extraordinary if they look at it with a more keen eye and the motivation to increase their abilities by trying new things. This trip I tried to look for the odd knot in dead wood, or here, a cat carved on an old piece of rotting and splintering timber that overlooks an inspiring lush valley below.
Looking at a piece of driftwood, or a downed tree that has been weatherworn and beaten by years of rushing water and sand can take on new meaning when looked at from a fresh perspective. (I thank my dad for this photo)
Throwing your camera out the window to capture a huge granite stone that was sitting just stubbornly amongst the raging rapids inadvertantly turned out as these next two photos, I missed the granite rock entirely, but love what turned up instead.

The juxtaposition of man sawing down a tree and the natural decomposition of it in a setting that is supposed to be as close to nature as one can get was interesting to me.

Then coming across a tree its limbs torn from it's trunk dead centered in front of me was not normally how someone would notice, if they even did notice, a dead tree in the forrest. 
The knotty bark of a pine at the base of a tree struggling to give root and supply its branches with nourishment was appealing to my eye. It seemed to stand on feet.

And here two trees, that for some unknown reason, began to grow together caught my eye this trip. I don't consider myself to be a photographer of nature, I've never tried it, nor had I found any interest in it until I saw how some of these photos developed. I'm trying to grow as an artist and photographer and amid the ordinary photos that everyone likes to take while making record of family trips and places I went to broaden my perspective of photography in general and of me personally, taking risks hopefully will make me better and a more refined artist. 

Bridal Veil Falls the Hike...

While Dennis was waiting to get a parking stall for our car, I hopped out with my camera and got these from the entrance to the lot. Although it is a beautiful waterfall tourists who know can drive past this entrance to the park's marked lot for the hike and drive past on the main road to a hiking trail with parallel parking along both sides that sees less traffic than the first, mainly because first time travelers will stop at the first location, not realizing there is an alternate with an even better hike!


It was a perfect day for our leisurely hike. We all brought sweatshirts if it became chilly and only needed them when we reached the point where the mists from the falls were cold and carried in by the breezes.


The boys started the hike first...
Soon followed by the girls...

It was beautiful and as we walked along the rocky stream the falls replenished we had ample opportunity for photo shots.


Dennis could get the kids to hold still for more than a second, and come to think of it I have yet to see how his pictures turned out!
For me, they were just plain crazy!
At least I could count on my parents for a darling picture! What a cute couple!
Other great moments along our hike...