Yosemite Panoramic Monday  

By John P. DeGrazio  

I normally don’t shoot into the sun, but I was testing a new theory with the iPhone panorama camera feature. I tapped the screen to set the exposure on the peak of Half Dome in the direct sunlight to darken the rest of the image. The results were actually better than expected but still not ideal.

We spent the morning walking around Mirror Lake then into the Tenaya Canyon. The morning chill dissipated quickly as the sun presented itself over the summit of Half Dome. We were soon shedding layers like a monarch caterpillar as we made our way up the switchbacks. We stopped for lunch on a rock, found some shade, and were beholden by this scene. The phone panorama feature is tricky with choosing a starting and ending point, but I think I’m getting the hang of it and was very happy with this composition. This will be an excellent sunset location.

The next day, we went up to Dewey Point and made this capture. The storm from two weeks ago was welcome in Yosemite, but it’s too bad the the snow couldn’t stick around longer. We were still captivated by the beauty of El Capitan and the wispy clouds were dancing overhead.