On the way back out to the meadow from Glen Aulin we made a short detour to check out Devil’s Postpile. I chose not to check out the Postpile and watch everyone’s gear as they took the short hike off-trail (aka: eat a clif bar, drink some water and climb down the rocks to shoot pictures of the river)

The river is wide and fast starting about here as it’s right at the top of the final descent into Glen Aulin. I was able to climb down a pretty good way with my full bag and shoot some pictures from a somewhat precarious position right above a small falls. The worst thing that could have happened would have been a 12 foot drop into a deep pool filled with fresh mountain water (with the potential for a solid head-whacking on the way down i suppose but it was generally pretty safe).

The thing that makes shooting really difficult out in the thin mountain atmosphere with no clouds in sight is the amount of light. My meter was returning EV18 or there abouts (that’s a little extreme, but it was bright!). I strapped a heavy neutral density on to slow things down a bit but shooting in that kind of light with NDs makes for some pretty contrasty exposures (reference current image).

This was probably the last frame i shot on the way back to the meadow. From there it was 4 miles to the cars and ~200 more back to San Francisco. 15 hours after returning to the car i was sitting at my desk back at work.

Fortunately we get the opportunity to go back tomorrow for a couple of nights. First stop is a cabin in Curry Village and then saturday morning we shove out to May Lake where last year at around this time i made this picture of me looking pretty rough (the altitude has a way of doing that to me) – and the few more before it.

See you soon!