Half Dome From Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park

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One of the more interesting locations to get an alternate perspective on Yosemite National Park’s iconic Half Dome is Olmsted point. While Half Dome is always amazing to see anytime of the day, sunsets from Olmstead point can be particularly magical. Back in 2007 when I took this photo forest fires had ravaged surrounding areas to Yosemite and were still burning. Air quality was awful, but the smoke combined with the setting sun provided a painterly look to this amazing view.

Half Dome From Olmsted Point

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Posted by Jim on 03.04.2009 at 4:39 am
Tagged: California, Landscape, Locations, Nature, Photography, Stock Photo, Yosemite , Landscape, Photography, Stock Photo

Richard Wong

Interesting historical background Jim. Maybe this will lead to a perception change in photography.
Jim

@Richard Thanks. One thing I've learned from my trip to Switzerland last year and experiences with the fire that caused the look to this image... the classic paintings that have this pastel hue to the sky aren't a form of artistic license. A lot of this coloring results from the smoke produced by wood burning fires. Forest fires clearly produce enough to cause this shift in hue as does wide spread burning of wood to warm homes. In Switzerland there is still enough people burning wood to create this color pallet at dawn/dusk. I always thought the classic painters took artistic license with the coloring... apparently not. When there's no wind the smoke settles into valleys like Yosemite and sits there until the winds pick up. The particulates then produce this characteristic hue at the magic hour.
Richard Wong

Cool shot Jim. You are right it does look painterly.