A dawn in the outskirts of Bangalore

"SRS Betta" (!!) a new place for me, was selected by Dinesh for the next day morning shoot. The name first sounded weird and a the possibility of any distant linkage of this name with the popular SRS Travels (a transportation company) flashed through my mind! It was only the next day morning I got to know the name of the place when Dinesh told me - Shri Revanna Siddeshwara Betta.

It was about 5:40 am when we arrived at the place and the sky was still deep blue with some bright stars shining. The East was giving an indication of changing the sky colour soon by bringing in the Sun. Horizon was slowly turning pink.

The place offers very good opportunity for landscape photographers. The two rocky hills stand prominently in the otherwise plane landscape. The nearby lake provides a nice opportunity to get some reflections of those hills, on a ripple-less morning.

As we were making images around the lake the Sun broke out of the horizon. The light was soft and of the kind of typical winter Sunrise.

Yosemite - My impressions

If I were to rate a place that I visited during my short stay in the West Coast US then Yosemite would be second on my list, after Death Valley. The sheer diversity of the landscape is so enriching that I bet even the most conservative photographer would come back with a high number of excellent images.

Yosemite was the next one in our plan, after Death Valley, during our stay in Sunnyvale. Having been driven to Death Valley and having been spoiled by the tremendous photo opportunity that Death Valley presented, the expectation from Yosemite was no less. Apart from its grand vistas and beautiful waterfalls it had another unique attraction to us - the Giant Sequoia, largest tree specie on earth. Since Sahana and me are big time tree lovers, seeing this huge mammoth was high on our wish-list. Areas around Mariposa Grove inside the Yosemite National Park have many of these giant trees.

The time that we planned to visit Yosemite was in the third weekend of December 2014. By that time it has already snowed in some parts of the region. The route to Glacier Point, one of the most famous and iconic spots in the Park, was closed. Same was the case with Mariposa Grove. At least that's what their website was telling the previous day of our visit. This made our hopes of seeing Giant Sequoia bleak and needless to say that we were little disappointed.

Our plan was to reach Yosemite Valley by noon and spending some time in the valley and exploring the photographic opportunity at various points. The next day morning was planned at Tunnel View, another famous spot, and then based on the previous day's experience deciding what to do next.

As per the plan we reached Yosemite Valley by noon. We filled petrol (Gas, as it is called in US) to our vehicle in the last point at El Portal, before entering the National Park. The drive along the Merced River was pleasant and enjoyable. As we entered Yosemite Valley we were stunned by the sheer beauty of the place. One side you have huge mammoth-like mountain - El Capitan, and the other side you have series of rocky peaks and to add to the whole view you have huge water falls on either side of the valley. The beauty and the joy was much more than what we had expected!

After spending some time in the first meadow in the valley we went straight to Visitor Center. Visitor Centers are the best places to get accurate information in all the US National Parks. The staff there are normally very well informed and they help you to make your experience better and pleasant. The staff at the Visitor Center told us that due to no snowfall in past few days Mariposa Grove was opened for visitors on the very same day morning. That was a welcome surprise for us and we decided to head straight to Mariposa Grove and then coming back to Tunnel View by sunset.

Mariposa Grove didn't disappoint us at all. We both were bowled over by the sheer size of the Giant Sequoia trees. We walked along one of the smaller trails to see the largest Giant Sequoia in Yosemite - Giant Grizzly! We also saw various other types of pines like Sugar Pine, which has the longest cones of any coniferous trees. The information boards all across the pathways are excellent sources of information about the tree and the region.

Satisfied with the experience of seeing the largest tree specie on earth, we head back to Tunnel View. By the time we reached Tunnel View the sun had already set. We were not disappointed as we planned for visiting the same place again the next day morning. Hence we headed straight to the place where we had booked our stay - Curry Village. It is an excellent place if you are looking for a budget accommodation, where you are given a nice tent with an optional heater facility. Completely tired by the activities during the day we just wanted to rest our heads against the pillow. The next day morning was waiting.

Tunnel View is another iconic point in Yosemite National Park. That is a point where every tourist has a photograph and almost the same photograph :) ! That morning was no less beautiful. The cloud was still hovering in the valley beneath and the distant sky was turning light pink. After some time, the high clouds spoiled the morning glow but the clouds in the valley were still providing plenty of opportunities for every photographer to explore possibilities. We spent about two hours by enjoying image making process and soaking in the atmosphere of the place.

The rest of the day was spent in exploring various other spots and some trails in the Park. The prominent one which we enjoyed was our visit to Mirror Lake. The name was accurate and meaningful to the place. The lake indeed was a mirror, reflecting the high glaciers and the peaks in its water. The ripples were not often and hence the beauty of looking at the neat reflection was a sheer joy for quite some time. We enjoyed making some images at that place.

Post lunch we headed to few other spots to view Yosemite Falls from bottom and stopped at few places to make some images enroute. Our plan was to witness another sunset before we start heading back to Sunnyvale, which was about four hours of drive from the Park. We decided on a place that is beside a river from where you have a clear view of the El Capitan on one side and the other peaks on the opposite side. The river in the foreground was adding nicely to the whole scene. Our decision of spending another sunset paid off as the sky was turing very vibrant. The red glow of setting sun was falling directly on the imposing structure of El Capitan and its vertical side was reflecting the radiant glow. A set of small cloud was giving a nice scale to the whole scene.

After making few images at the spot we suddenly decided to go to Tunnel View once again before the twilight fades away. By the time we started to head towards Tunnel View, which was about 3 - 4kms from the place where we were shooting, the glow was quite at its peak. But we knew that the scene would be much more appealing from the place where we were going now and we were not disappointed! When we reached the place the sky was having post sunset glow and the whole valley in front and the sky above were bathed in pink afterglow of sunset. That light was there for few minutes before it started to fade away by giving place to the evening blues!

By the time we started back from Yosemite it was about 5:30PM and it was already dark! But what we had witnessed that evening was something truly special.

The majestic El-Capitan, beautiful Yosemite Falls, serene Yosemite Valley and those HUGE Giant Sequoias have etched memories of Yosemite experience forever in our lives.

Asking me if I want to go there again?
- Why not? :)


Cheers,
Ash

Death Valley - a barren wonderland

During my official trip to Sunnyvale, CA, one of the must visit plans that Sahana and myself had was to visit Death Valley! Both had this place in mind without even being discussed among us! So during our planning it became easier to arrive at the decision of visiting Death Valley!

As the planned dates come closer we got company for the visit. This time it was my good old friend Vijet and his wife Anisha, who agreed to join hands with us for the long journey of about 500 miles!

After some rounds of search for a good place to stay we finalised on Panamint Springs Resort. The place was within the Death Valley boundaries and we thought it would be nice to stay within the park premises. Our plan was of two days. We knew that just two days are not enough to explore such a big National Park (with more than 13000 sq kms, this is the biggest of the lower 48 states of US).

500 miles drive, that too just for a weekend visit necessitates very early start and that is exactly what we did. Starting at 4AM helped us to cover more ground before the dawn broke out. Couple of fuel stops enroute and we were almost near the badlands (another term for the area of Death Valley)! The route we took from Sunnyvale was - I-5 => Bakerfield => I-58 => I-14 (via Red Rock Canyon State Park) => I-395 => I-190. The route was very scenic all along, which made the journey very pleasant.

The journey along I-190 feels quite haunting. This is mainly because many times you may be the only one driving on a road that looks as if it is endless and merging completely in the horizon! With almost nothing around you hardly notice the speed at which you are driving! It was almost 2 PM by the time we reached the place where we had booked our stay - Panamint Springs Resort! Unlike what the name suggests, it was no where near to a 'resort' but in a barren and remote place like this getting something is more than anything.

Since we were spending two days, the plan was to visit the areas beyond Furnace Creek on Saturday evening and spend the sunset at Badwaters area. Since Artists Palette was on the way to Badwaters the plan to cover that also looked feasible.

We all had read that Death Valley is a huge area. Reading is one thing and feeling that is altogether a different experience! Furnace Creek was at about 55 miles away from Panamint Springs, where we had booked our stay. Stovepipe Wells lies in between, which has some nice sand dunes around. But our plan was to get to these sand dunes the next morning. So we just went past that area to go to Furnace Creek. After a short visit to the visitor center there we headed straight to Artists Palette. A drive through a narrow space would bring you to a place which is hidden from the main road. It is then when you realise why the place is named so! The mountains in front were full of different colors! At one point in time it became hard to believe that what we are seeing in front is completely natural!

The drive through Artists Palette was about 45 min, including our stops to make some images. By the time we came out of that drive to the main road the Sun was already getting ready to pack up for the day! It was winter and Sun was setting quite early! Day time was short. So we rushed to Badwaters to catch the evening light in the hope of making some good images there. I had seen some wonderful images made at that place by leading landscape photographers from US. So needless to say I had huge hopes on the place for various compositional opportunities. The salt cracks of the region had provided wonderful foreground for those amazing images from the region. Combine that with evening twilight or few stars in the sky and your recipe for a beautiful image was ready! With all these things in mind and more we reached the place. By that time Sun had gone below the mountain range on the west. But the evening glow was still there. People who had come there were also leaving slowly due to low light. Low light is not always a problem for a Landscape Photographer! Sometimes it is a boon - to make long exposure images. By consoling like these to myself, we set out to see how the place is. To our bad luck the salt cracks were all wiped off due to heavy rains few days back and the whole place had become a pile of brownish white salt clusters with no shape and form. I was utterly disappointed. I had high hopes on this place and what we were seeing in front was in no way giving any good images. It was just useless. Our plan of spending time there to make quality images tanked. Mood was grim on our way back to the hotel. Now I became anxious to see what would happen for rest of the plans!

Sahana had planned Death Valley to coincide with Geminids Meteor shower. Since Vijet was an avid astro-photography enthusiast our next plan was to shoot the meteor shower at night. Though the place around the hotel had few street lamps, the sky was pretty much clear from light pollution. When we looked up to see whether we are able to see the stars, we all shocked completely by looking at the amount of stars visible in the sky. Vijet got super excited as it was his dream to shoot milky way! By the time we finished our dinner and came back with our camera gears, the milky way was emerging from behind the distant mountains. It was an awesome sight! Last time I had seen milky way was when we were doing Leonids project and I was placed on top of Kodachadri. That was around 5 years back! That was also a meteor shower night and it was a clear deja-vu moment for me! As we were enjoying the sight of milky way, we saw couple of meteor streaks! With that sighting we just accelerated our search for a good foreground to make a decent image and set up our equipment. With few initial images we got the idea of the exposure and once that is set we just prayed for some good show in the sky! It was not like Badwaters! This time we were not disappointed! We all got few good images of Milky-way with meteor streaks! Finally we tasted the first fruit of our planning! That was an amazing night!

Next day morning was planned to be spent near the Mesquite sand dunes in Stovepipe wells area. we started off quite early in the morning. The idea was to be there near the sand dunes by sun rise. We managed to do that. The early morning light was making those huge mountains look so beautiful all along the drive. We were spellbound by the vastness and the silence of the place. It was an elegant silence! Since there is no vegetation, there is very less lifeforms in the whole region. The bird population is limited to either human settlement areas or in the areas where there is some water and vegetation, like Dante's Falls area. In rest of the area there is hardly any bigger life forms. Hence if you get out of the car and listen to the sound, you will just hear silence!! An absolute SILENCE! The vastness of the area confuses your senses totally because one would not expect that much of silence in that vast land. One would atleast expect some fluttering of leaves or chirps of birds or any other sound to make him feel his existence! But here in Death Valley, if you are not near the human habitation areas (which are tiny by themselves) you will definitely feel that either you have gone deaf or you are non-existent! It would be like a muted movie with spectacular scenes in front! With all these thoughts running in the mind when I got down from the vehicle I was in front of the mesmerising sand dunes! The Sun was just coming up from behind the mountains in the east. The early morning golden glow was just touching the golden sand which was a bit moist due to the dew last night. The sand curves were playing a nice light drama. It was my first encounter with sand dunes. I was excited. Especially after witnessing the meteor shower last night and getting some decent pictures I was in a mood to enjoy. The place had not disappointed. It offered excellent opportunity to make some good images and enjoy the process. We walked through the sand dunes for some distance and that helped to get good perspectives in terms of composition, lighting and interesting foregrounds.

Once light started to loose its softness we decided to pack up and head to our next point - Mosaic Canyon. Death Valley has several beautiful canyons such as this, which offer a wonderful close look at the colorful nature of the landscape. In Mosaic Canyon it was colorful layered rocks that offer spectacular views and insights. It was a small walk from the parking area and the whole stretch was simply amazing. The array of colors on the rocks was simply fabulous. After about an hour we started from that place to head back to Panamint Springs. 

We had about an hour and a half left before we start our 500 miles journey back. We decided to explore Dante's Falls area. Having seen completely barren land from past two days, it was a welcome change to see patches of green vegetation along the route to Dante's Falls. We walked for about half an hour with photo stops in between and reached a small stream, which is made from the water of the falls. After spending some time there we decided to head back as the road further looked a bit narrow and needed careful manoeuvre, which we were not keen on. So we just decided to head back and spend some time enroute shooting some interesting stuffs.

It was around 12:30 PM or so when we finally started our return journey via the same route as we had come. It was almost midnight by the time we reached our place in Sunnyvale with loads of memory and tonnes of images!

What remains in my mind for a long time is the experience of silence that I felt in Death Valley. I had never listened to silence so clearly till then! In my mind the images of the place come and go, but the silence remains like an eternal truth!

Cheers,
Ash