Qun's brother came into town recently and she wanted to take him to Yosemite. Even though there was the Rim fire, most of Yosemite did not burn. So this is the first time we went off season and it was fantastic. I can not say how much I enjoyed driving around and not have to deal with traffic. We where told that early spring and winter are even better!
Entering the park.
Here is the first little waterfall that we saw.
Here is Brideviel Falls as you entry the valley. There was very little water and the wind turned most of it to mist. (Yes my daughter and I climbed quite a ways to the falls.)
Half dome.
El Capitan.
Yosemite Valley meadows.
So here are a lot of general landscape pictures.
This was the night sky at the place we stayed.
Hetch Hetchy area.
Here are a few pictures of the fire damage. The first ones are from the Hetch Hetchy area, while the last couple are from the Hwy 120 vista overlook. I can see why this was a fast moving fire.
Well this is our third month in a row in Tahoe. The smoke has finally cleared and yes the Tahoe and Reno areas where hit hard with the smoke from the Rim fire, aka Yosemite areas.
The seasons where definitely changing and there were a lot less people about. The summer ones have left and the snow had not arrived. Thus it was a nice time although a little cold.
Here are a few pictures from this outing. It was again fun watching the salmon run and this year a bear cub decided to make a showing even though the government was shut down. (The Taylor visitor center was closed thus I think there where less people on the path thus they did not scare the bear away. Anyway, the bear walked within feet or my wife and daughter and did not really care that there where people around. He was more interested in the salmon. They where on the raised path and the bear was in the creek, thus there was a railing separating them.)
Here are a few pictures of the energies of beavers. And yes, beavers I guess love steps too.
Some of the landscape of the area.
Lastly, this was shot from the balcony of the place we where staying. All I can say is that I am lazy. The tree is actually illuminated by the glow from the downstairs fireplace and the clouds where lit by the 3/4 moon that was high to the right behind a group of trees as the camera sat. The exposure itself was 30s, f13, 28mm at 1600 ISO. A little noise reduction with Nik.
I really should use that as my moniker. I am starting to realize that what I shoot tends to be what I pass on a day to day basis and I have software and programs to help me setup shots and situations but I rarely use them. Oh well, here are a few shots taken over the summer.
Flowers. Trying closeups, but I have not purchased a macro lens yet. It will probably be my next purchase. 105 Sigma or the 105 Nikon. (Then I can do some real closeups.)
This guy poked his head up toward the end of my daughter's back to school picnic. He had a few people and kids watching him. He would pop up and eat a bit of grass and pop down. When someone got a bit close, he disappeared for about a minute and then we watched as he back-filled that entrance. Then all of a sudden he appeared at a different hole and started eating again. And the cycle would start again.
Lastly, yet another project getting started. I got a microscope and am starting to investigate the small. (I may have gone too small.) This first picture is a very quick test of a blood smear. (Yes, poor slide creation and preparation. I have to relearn it.)
This was suppose to be our Yosemite Trip but 2 days before we left, we get a call from the place where we where going to stay telling us that they are being evacuated because of the Rim Fire. We where going to stay at Yosemite Lake and hope them the best.
Anyway, we still visited Yosemite in a some fashion since even in North Tahoe we where getting smoke and even ash one morning. I think that lead to a bit more subdued time in Tahoe and it was still very enjoyable for the kids. (We limited the hiking because of the smoke thus spending more time at the beach.)
It was not till the last two days did things start to clear. We did a short hike up to the fire station lookout point at State Line. Kids did not really like the hike but it changed briefly when they saw the view.
Here is a group of pictures on the way up.
And the last day, things cleared up enough that I was able to do a couple of timelapse shots at the beach.
Last weekend I decided to visit Christopher Creek Winery to pick up my wine club wines. I just so happened to be the same weekend they where doing some bottling. Since they are a smaller winery, they rent the bottling facility and the facility is a semi-truck with a couple of trailers. One being the pump and the other being the bottling machine. There is a crew of about 5 or 6 running the whole operation and since I always carry my camera, I decided to try and get a few pictures. (Also they have opened up more of the grounds and I was able to get a few pictures from around the winery.)
First let's start with some pictures of the area. This is the 'new' pool area that was just opened up.
And this is an attempt at doing a panoramic of the valley. This was shot basically under the umbrella from the above picture.
They also had some live music playing this day and the drummer had a visitor. He stayed even while he played.
Here are the two pictures I took of the winery itself, I wanted to get some pictures of the bottler. (Ok, machines fascinate me.)
To start the empties are loaded in one side of the back of the trailer. They travel along the back side and then into a rinser type machine. Here the clean/sterile bottle are, I believe, filled with nitrogen and then emptied by flipping them.
Once it goes through this wheel, which is at the other end of the trailer. It then goes to the bottle filler and corker. These are two barrel systems that take the bottle around in two circles.
After that they get their foil top and crimp. And then on to the labeler.
Once they get the label, it is out the back of the trailer to be boxed up.
Ok lastly, I did have to collect some video of this whole process. Here are four short videos. The first is the bottle flipper.
Fill and corking.
Then on to the foil and sealer.
Finally to the labeler.
I would like to thank Christopher Creek and their bottler for allowing me to take these pictures.
