Yosemite Snowstorm © Harold Davis

Thinking about the upcoming photography conference in Yosemite led me to browse through some of my archives of work of Yosemite in winter’s past. Digital means never having to say one is sorry, and that it is always possible to reprocess. Contemporary advances in software interpolation means that even fairly low resolution images can be enlarged and printed at decent sizes. So maybe it is worth going through one’s files to see what was captured at the dawn of the digital photography era!

The color version of the image above was originally blogged in 2006 in But Where Are the Snows of Yesteryear.

I think the three images below, of a snowstorm in Yosemite, ice on the Merced River, and a somewhat hair-raising view off the spine of Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park were never blogged—they do not appear in any of my books—and date to roughly the same time frame. The image of the Blizzard takes a little looking at in the larger size (and maybe squinting) before the shapes of the snow-laden trees become fully apparent.

Blizzard © Harold Davis

Skim Ice on the Merced © Harold Davis

View from Angel’s Landing © Harold Davis

Yosemite View, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

This photo appears in Creative Black & White: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques on pages 118-119. Here’s what I wrote about the image:

Photographing during a clearing winter storm in Yosemite, I worked hard to find a slightly different angle to frame the marvelous vista that opened before me. It was hard to see this view without thinking of the sumptuous Ansel Adams photography of Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada mountains, so naturally I wanted to create a photo that could be successfully converted to black and white.

To achieve this goal, I knew that I would need to have a sense of crispness across the entire image. This meant that I would need maximum depth-of-field. So I stopped my camera all the way down to f/22 and used a wide angle setting to achieve as much depth-of-field as possible.

Here’s the exposure data: 20mm, 1/40 of a second at f/22 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.

Speaking of Creative Black & White, the book has been a hit almost since the day of publication. It’s the #1 digital photography book on Amazon right now (see the screen capture below).

A very special thanks to everyone who has reviewed my book on Amazon. I particularly appreciate Jack Tasoff’s very flattering review “Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, and Edward Weston Made Digital” and Constance Halporn’s comment that “this book clearly and concisely shows the reader how to make excellent B&W images in the digital world. This has been a real revelation to me, as I didn’t think I would ever get the quality of B&W from my digital files. A must-have text for the serious photographer.”

Snow in the Forest, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Briefly noted: On a recent trip to Yosemite, snow was falling at the foot of the John Muir Trail heading up towards Vernal Falls. A short way up the trail, the snow ebbed and the sun started emerging—letting me snap this image of snow in the forest in mixed light.

Come Back to the Valley, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

It’s spring here in Berkeley, but winter still clings to the mountains. On a recent trip to Yosemite, coinciding with spring break, I took Julian and Nicky to Yosemite. We hiked up to Vernal Falls in a snow storm, and I shot this view carefully from the Vernal Falls bridge using a tripod. The scene was essentially monochromatic, with the sun just started to appear. When I processed the image, after converting to black and white, I added a very slight sepia tint.

It’s always great to visit Yosemite Valley—at any time of year.

Cathedral Spires and Bridalveil Falls, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

This is a view of Bridalveil Falls and Cathedral Spires in Yosemite Valley processed to simulate a pinhole camera: vignetting at the edges, softness, brightness in the center, high depth-of-field, and an overall antique look.

Digital simulations of “looks” from the back pages of classic analog photography are great fun!

Winter Vista, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

To enhance this monochromatic winter vista of Yosemite, I used a split toning effect. I added a deeper sepia tone to the darker tones, and lighter sepia to the brighter areas of the image.

In the analog darkroom, toning was a function of paper, processing and chemistry. Split toning was achieved by altering the process so that highlights were handled differently from the dark areas of the photo; for example, by stopping a chemical bath at an earlier point than normal.

In the Photoshop darkroom toning and split toning are, of course, virtual—like the entire digital monochromatic process. Digital black and white is an aesthetic intention with soul, a willful abnegation of color, and an intentional and anachronistic reference to the historical craft of photography.

You can learn more about toning and split toning techniques in Photoshop in Creative Black & White: Digital Photography Tips & Technques.