Nicely done America (Day 3)

Nicely done America (Day 3)

• 10.31.2011

As I write this, I'm chugging water and eating a corn muffin for dinner. Exotic right? Well, my dinner is about one bazillion times less exciting and pretty as my day was.

But, hey... I'm in YOSEMITE and it's Day 3.

Newsflash? It's pretty great. But I'm oddly sore from a combo of driving for almost 5 hours straight and then ambling around the rest of the day in my hiking boots. Don't worry I didn't hike in the least-ish.

When I was attempting to plan this adventure, I discovered that the Ansel Adams Gallery in the Valley offers half day photography classes. I was super excited ... and then realized that their phone was broken and there was no way to get in touch with them to schedule the class. Luckily, when I arrived today and checked in at the gallery.... I was 30 minutes early for a class.

I've always been a person that took pictures on the automatic setting. I'm lazy. But this class was a great opportunity to ask questions and learn a few things. Plus, it was really fun trying to avoid getting smacked by the guy who carried his tripod the entire time. Here are a few of the things I learned about: aperture, f-stop, histogram, white balance, blowout (not related to hair), playing with texture, depth of field and lens filters. I didn't walk away from the class with any stellar pictures but it was more about "experimentation" than "becoming Ansel Adams". Although if I was going to become Ansel Adams, I'd make sure my shop had a working phone and email address.

playing with white balance ... and some really big rocks

After the class, I checked into my lodging at the Yosemite Lodge at the Falls. Its most definitely in a National Park and I miss my Hilton bedding. This just isn't the same :) I also managed to make it to the Tunnel View in time for Sunset. For the special occasion, I broke out my new tripod .... that I bought at one of the 23 Targets I passed on my way here from SF. Nothing says prepared like unwrapping your new tripod next to a group of people talking shop.

So in brief here are a few special moments in the day:

• making it just in time for photo class (and knocking an item off my bucket list)
• rocking out to country music with the windows down anytime I was in the car
• eating some cheez-its watching sunset at Tunnel View ... and by "some" ... I mean excessive amount
• finding out that bears will eat my cheez-its if I leave them in the car overnight

Note: one thing I did today was take a picture of what I was looking at every hour that I was active.  I'm going to try and remember to keep this going and compile them all at the end of the adventure. There is also a solid chance that this project ends before lunch tomorrow...