Why would anyone be so bold to photograph something that was already done so perfectly by the master, Ansel Adams?  Well, because it's there and because the light is always changing.  So it's always new, always fresh.

As part of the recent Eastern Sierra photography workshop, I was planning on shooting one sunset in the high country of Yosemite National Park; that is, if Tioga Pass was open.  The winter of 2009-2010 brought much needed snowfall to the Sierra so the opening of Tioga Pass in early June was not a sure thing.  But fortunately, it opened the same day our workshop started so when we made it up there five days later we were in store for a special treat.

I had never photographed from Olmsted Point before, the location where I wanted to shoot sunset.  So I scouted it on Google Earth and was delighted to see that the classic view of Tenaya Lake and Mount Conness was just a short walk back up the road from the Olmsted Point parking lot.  Judging from where the sun would be setting in summer I determined that we should arrive early and shoot the lake first as it would fall into shadow while the sun  was still high in the sky.  We could then return to the Olmsted Point parking lot to shoot the real prize - the back side of Half Dome.

The 'virtual scouting' worked to perfection.  We arrived at Olmsted Point in plenty of time to photograph Tenaya Lake.  The light worked out just as anticipated.  What Google Earth wasn't able to tell me, though, was that a front would be moving through that would provide us with these fantastic clouds.

We set up and began our shoot.  The lake was still covered with ice which made it all the more interesting.  No special techniques or filtration were required.  The scene was brilliant and Mount Conness was in fantastic relief as the summer sun settled toward the western horizon.  The drama unfolded for an hour or so until the valley was finally filled with shadow and it was time to move on.  The image I selected was captured at the peak of the drama with shadows creating lines across the foreground forest and the valley filled with patterns of dark and light.

I fully intended this to be a color image.  But as I worked on it the colors were just not right.  The granite was gray, the little patches of sky that were visible were blue and the pine trees were an orangish green that, when put together, created a color palette that was anything but pleasing.  After a period of trying to make it work, I gave up and decided to render it in black and white.  And I'm glad I did. 

I made the black and white conversion in Lightroom.  This gave me the ability to independently adjust the luminance of each of the color channels.   I'm printing the image on a metallic glossy paper which gives it a fantastic look.  I must say I'm rather pleased with the results.