Michael Tomaszewski 8/14/23 Michael Tomaszewski 8/14/23

Travel Blog #6: Yosemite Part 2

Travel Through Yosemite National Park with a Leica M2

Leaving our parking spot after our hike to Vernal Falls was a terrible mistake. We had heard parking was difficult, but had no clue how hard it would be to find something close to our next destination. We were about a mile away from Yosemite Village and figured we would pop in, spend a little time at the Ansel Adams Gallery and then head out to the Lower Yosemite Falls trail. Instead, we spent the next hour driving and circling in every visitor parking lot we came across. There is not enough parking in this park, and the NPS.gov website recommends finding a spot before 8am and remaining in that spot. If we had paid attention to that we would have walked only slightly further than we drove.

After finally finding a spot at what I think was the Ahwahnee Hotel, we were on our way. There is a large section of the lot that is hotel parking only, but on the two extreme ends it is open to everyone. Other than the parking situation this was the absolute highlight of the trip for me. The walk back to the village was about a mile, and it took us past the two main things I had wanted to shoot with my Leica. Before we left, I took some time to relearn how Ansel Adams shot Monolith, and basically it was his usual film with a deep red filter to darken the sky. About halfway to the gallery I was able to get the exact angle I had been looking forward to. Beforehand, I had honestly not looked at any maps to know where it would be, so I am so happy I saw this piece of rock and it looked every bit as majestic as I imagined. I took this same photo with a bare lens, a yellow filter and of course a red filter. As I suspected, the red filter version is my favorite and could be my favorite photo I’ve ever taken.

Getting to the gallery was literally a dream come true. I made sure to look at the other artist’s prints first and they were amazing, but when you’ve been looking forward to seeing something in person for 30 years, those extras are simply a distraction to the main event. Unfortunately, they do not allow photos in there…but I snuck one of the display cases with his original equipment (one of the employees didn’t seem to mind). It was kind of a humbling experience to be standing in front of prints he had made and signed himself. They still have his original assistants come in several times a year to make new prints from his original negatives but were sold out of the one I really hoped to bring home. They had the original Moonrise over Hernandez available but spending $79,000 seemed like a poor investment on my part so I left with a small reproduction and 4 postcards. If we ever go back, I think I will try to convince my “financial advisor” it would be a wise investment to get one of the museum prints if they have them available. One of the curators, Ken, was listening to me talk with one of the other customers about this blog (he was also shooting film in the park) and then he spent the next 45 minutes walking me through the history of several of the photos, showed me details about a few of my favorites I had never seen and generally gave me a masters class on Ansel Adams’ life I never expected when I walked in the front door. If you ever have the chance to go talk with Ken, plan on spending at least an hour with him and be prepared to learn.

The final planned part of the day was Lower Yosemite Falls. The paved trail is an easy and accessible loop. I believe it was about 1 mile and there were so many different spots with amazing views it’s hard to choose a favorite. Most places you’re only able to see either upper or lower falls, but in a few you can see both. Then when you get to the bridge over the river it feels like you are standing right inside the falls. It’s a few hundred yards away from the bottom but the spray is incredible and was really fun to stand in. I didn’t spend much time on the bridge because my cameras aren’t weatherproof. But if you aren’t worried about it yourself, please take the time to stand there and let one of God’s great creations envelope you. I would love to make the 8-mile hike to Upper Falls someday, and if we get back there to see Glacier Point it will be right there at the top of my list.

As we were going back to the car, we were trying to figure out what souvenir we wanted to remember this trip by. One of the guys we were walking near recommended the gift shop back at the hotel and we weren’t disappointed. It was definitely the best selection within the park, and for those of you that are going to camp there they had a really nice selection of local beer available.

On the way out of the park traffic was light. It seemed like once we got past Yosemite Falls there wasn’t nearly as much crowding. Plenty of spots on the side of the road and in pullouts. Since the road through the valley is just one big loop, it put you right at the base of the mountain and can get incredible views of El Capitan, Three Brothers and what I am pretty certain is the Merced River. If you have time at the end of your day to stop and watch climbers as the sunlight turns to Golden Hour, it would be worth the time to sit and have a snack for a while. I was able to get a few shots with the experimental film I had in my Nikon, and I really like the way they turned out. I waited 30 years to be in this valley and it was worth it. I cannot wait to get back there because we barely scratched the surface of how awesome this place is due to the multiple road closures from snow and road work.

Michael Tomaszewski 8/7/23 Michael Tomaszewski 8/7/23

Travel Blog #5: Yosemite Part 1

Travel through Yosemite national park with a Leica m2

Fall 1995 is the first time I had ever seen a photo which made me know I had to visit anywhere. When my roommate and I went to a friend’s off-campus apartment during welcome week at Michigan State, he had a poster of Ansel Adams’ Monolith hanging and I immediately was taken by it. To say that poster has been influential in my desire to travel would be an understatement. I had no desire to go to California beyond maybe a trip to the beach or see a baseball game. Seeing that poster put Yosemite at the top of my “must do” list once I was able to afford it. 28 years later, I was able to see the same mountains and falls Ansel Adams spent much of his life photographing.

Not taking this trip lightly, as it may be a once in a lifetime occasion, I made sure to brush up on the few things I knew of how Adams shot this park. I didn’t want to copy his images, but I did want at least a few of mine to show how much his work has influenced how I try to look at scenes. He didn’t shoot color because he said it took away from the power of the image black and white makes. He tried to make clean, clear, “pure” photos and that’s what I wanted to do. I don’t have a large format camera like the 8x10 Graflex I’ve seen pictures of him using. But I did read a blurb of him using a Leica Rangefinder and that is what I knew I would be using along with the sharpest lens I own, a Leitz Summicron 50 mm f1.4. It is the most basic camera I have and being from the 1960’s could absolutely be something he would have shot while walking home from his workshop or hiking through the park.

We spent the night outside the park in Oakhurst, and our hotel was right next door to a small Gallery by the name of Firefall. I hadn’t planned to stop in, but I was bored and the thrift shops around weren’t exactly “thrift prices”. The owner greeted us, and we chatted about the park for just a few minutes, giving me possibly the best insight to visiting and I am passing it on to you now. Get there early, when I mentioned we planned to be at the gate around 6, she said, “that should still be OK” and honestly, I’m not sure we got there early enough.

Yosemite was by far the busiest place we went on any part of this vacation, and if you find a parking spot, just plan on leaving it there the rest of the day and taking shuttle buses or walking. This area of the park is just one big loop and the shuttle buses run regularly. Admittedly, the park service did say this was one of the most visited months and had just under 66,000 cars come through the gates. If that makes you not want to visit, I wholeheartedly still highly recommend spending at least a day at what I consider one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been. We spent the day there, did three hikes and left the park exhausted feeling like this is a place we need to come back to again someday. The only disappointment for me was Glacier Point being closed due to snow (amongst several other areas), which reinforced the need for a return trip.

I had high hopes for Yosemite, but I have learned to temper by enthusiasm for the first few stops of parks…this does not apply here. When you see the sign for Tunnel View, just plan to stop immediately when you exit the tunnel. The left lot was packed which is where we stopped, the right-hand lot was half empty and would have been much easier to exit. The sun was coming up and the valley was still covered in fog. I don’t generally like sun flare in my photos, but I knew there was nothing I could do except try to minimize it and maybe “place” it in an aesthetically reasonable spot in the frame. From here we were able to see the two main peaks in the park (El Capitan and Half Dome), and I think if we had stopped on the right side, you could possibly see Three Brothers and Horsetail Falls as well.

Tunnel View Half Dome and El Capitan, Leica M2

This day was off to a great start, and after we got onto the main road through the park, we pulled over maybe a half mile from where we came through Tunnel View to get our first up close view of El Capitan. We didn’t see any climbers (with binoculars), but we were told they were there most days. The sun was hitting El Cap just early enough it didn’t quite destroy the shadows, and the Merced River was swollen with snow melt, engulfing the base of the trees on its banks. This is the first spot I’ve been and felt like any photo I took would be good, it was just a matter of thinking through what I wanted the end product to look like. The sun being behind me for these photos eliminated the flare I had showing up at Tunnel View, which made for a much cleaner picture.

In a perfect world, we would have been able to park at the base of our first planned hike to Vernal Falls. In reality, we parked at what I think is a campground overflow lot a little over a mile away. This was our first real experience with crowds. We circled for at least 30 minutes to all the parking lots and pull offs before we found a spot and got on our way. The hike itself was a 1.6-mile trek uphill most of the way, but it’s paved and there are plenty of places to stop and take a break while looking across the valley to see waterfalls and amazing rock formations. If I were to do this hike again, I would have kept going another 0.2 miles and gone to Emerald Pool, but I honestly enjoyed the whole trip up and on the way back to our car I got my first real view of Half Dome. It was at this point I remembered by wallet has the topographic map of the mountain laser engraved on it, so I made sure to snap a quick pic of that too. It’s silly but it seemed fitting, and maybe someday I should send it to the maker of the wallet. Based on what I’ve read since we returned home, I believe Vernal Falls is the first stop on the way to Diving Board where Monolith was shot, so if I ever go back I need to be prepared for the 8+ mile hike carrying a 5-6 pound camera and 8x10 sheet film that weighs a pound each, all of which I will need to buy and learn how to use. So, if you have a Graflex Super Graphic just sitting in a box in your basement, let me know sometime in the next 20 years.

More to come next week about Yosemite, including the two best photos I’ve ever taken. See you soon.

Michael Tomaszewski 7/24/23 Michael Tomaszewski 7/24/23

Travel Blog 2023 #3: Death Valley

Travel through Death Valley National Park with a Leica M2

Our second main stop for this trip was THE hottest place on planet Earth: Death Valley National Park. The day we were there it was not a record-breaking day, but it was 101 degrees fahrenheit by the time we were ready to leave at 1:00 PM.

We were up and ready to leave the hotel and make what we expected to be about an hour drive and get there just after sunrise. Travelers tip for this park is the 2 resort Hotels inside the park are nominally more expensive than the ones an hour outside the park. When I checked the night we stayed it was only about $20-30 more for the rooms inside the park, but we were already unpacked and settled by the time I saw it. The drive into the park though was quite incredible with the sun coming up slowly behind the mountains. Local traffic was not patient with us as we observed the 70-mph speed limit though. Once we were past the few businesses in the area everyone was passing us to get to and over the first set of mountains, it truly felt isolated. Driving in through the valley adjacent to the park took about 40 minutes and we did not see a single living being the entire drive. There was a factory of some sort and even a small town we passed through, nothing was stirring. At the very end of the single road, we did unexpectedly run into something I had heard about but never knew where they were. The “Sailing Stones” are rocks that seem to float around on the sand as they heat and cool, leaving cryptic looking “drawings” behind. It was so unassuming and in the middle of nowhere we didn’t even know we were looking at them until we were nearly all the way past.

Once we got over the final pass and into the park, it was easy to understand how it got its name. It was only 89 degrees, but the air felt dead. The entrance was not staffed, and honestly the only place we saw anyone was at the Visitor Center. But the first attraction we stopped at was the Mesquite Flat Dunes. While it initially appears to be just another small set of sand dunes (though beautiful to look at), this was the first of at least two places’ parts of Star Wars: A New Hope was filmed. Here is the spot R2D2 decided to roll away from C3PO after arguing about the best way to go. There was no Krayt Dragon skeleton, just a couple Old Timers’ chatting outside an RV, drinking coffee. It would have been kind of neat to go on a hike out into the sand, but the last time I went out on a sand dune I regretted it.

Most of the park is at or below sea level. Combined with being in a valley, it adds up to oppressive daytime temperatures. It also makes for being very remote. There is one gas station inside the park, which I have read on more than one occasion is the most expensive one in the country. The day we drove past, it had a sign out front with a price of $6.29 per gallon. To say I was happy to have spent $4 a couple hours beforehand would be an understatement. But on to the main draw of Death Valley we went: Badwater Basin.

I can officially say I have now visited the lowest elevation on the surface of the United States, 282 feet below sea level. The salt on the ground is so thick and hard it feels like concrete. You can look out for miles and see nothing but more salt and sand. The sign stating the elevation is cool, but it doesn’t feel quite that impressive until you decide to turn back to your car and way up on the wall of the mountain road you drove in on is a small sign showing where sea level is. By this time, it was already sweltering, and we still had two more main sites to see.

Artist Pallet is one a one-way turnout loop off the main drive, very much worth the time. The draw is a small group of hills colored by volcanic deposits containing chlorite, iron, and others. The colors are a beautiful pastel and when we arrived the sun hadn’t quite gotten to it yet, so while it was warm it was very much worth getting out and hiking around. It was not strenuous, even with taking a little bit of a scramble off the trail to the top of a few hills.

The final stop for us was also the one I was looking the most forward to. It was also the only spot that felt even remotely crowded. Zabriskie Point is the spot I was hoping to get to before sunrise but failed. Even at midday and the sun beating down mercilessly on every person brave enough to get out of their car, I could barely contain my excitement. Yes, there is a half mile paved climb to get to it. Yes, it’s an incredible view. And YES, this is the spot Obi Wan Kenobi told Luke Skywalker, “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.”, as they were about to enter Mos Eisley. If you haven’t noticed yet I am a Star Wars fan, thankfully it’s not as nerdy as it was when I was a kid. This spot was much busier than any we had seen yet, it is very accessible by tour buses, RV’s and even though the walk up is steep, there are several places to stop and rest. If you are physically capable of getting there, please do. On a clear day, the Ranger’s say you can see Mt. Whitney from here. On our vacation, there was a distinct haze over everything but thankfully the Canadian Wildfires did not seem to be affecting us. So, we made the decision to take a circuitous route to our next destination that would take us past a closer view of Mt. Whitney and it’s friends.

Driving through this part of California really makes you think about how much land here is just unusable for anything, and how truly wild it really is.