I've long been fascinated by the tunnel entering the Yosemite Valley on Hwy 41. Stretching over a mile and hewn out of the solid rock of a mountain on the South side of the Merced River, the Wawona Tunnel emerges at Inspiration Point and dumps the unwary tourist amid the splendor of that magnificent valley view. It is truly awesome.
Faced with that scenery, the flocks of photographers at Inspiration Point usually look to the valley. But a few of us also look back at the tunnel and ponder the opportunities for neat images there.
This is one of a handful of shots I did that evening. As you can see, the ambient light was essentially gone, leaving only the artificial tunnel lights and the car tail lights. But it captured what I wanted to get.
The next image was shot a bit earlier and you can see there was still some ambient light left, but not much. While I like the atmosphere of the previous image, I do find having the on-coming lights in the shot below makes it a more dynamic photo. The slight cropping I did helped, too. Either way, I find both appealing and I was very happy with the results.
Those are very surreal, very modern art. Almost Edvard Munch. I think I like the second one better because of the white plus red lights and the faint wash of blue. More for the eye to chew on.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you posting more to your blog!
Lin