The first morning we were in Yosemite, we decided to make an early morning trip to Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias to beat the crowd and get the soft lighting of the morning on the western slopes of the sierras. We were the first people to arrive in the parking lot at the bottom of the grove. I got bundled up in a thick jacket to keep my mind off the near freezing temperatures. The first sight that anyone walking through Mariposa will see is this 2,000 year old Sequioa, which fell over 300 years ago. With the roots spreading outwards 15' in the air, they seem to dwarf anyone standing near them. Looking at the roots, you could get a sense of these thick mangled roots working for millennia to bring nutrients to this giant. Although the grandness of the scale is lost here, the weathering of thousands of years of life was evident in the rough texture of the roots.
After an early trip to tunnel view in Yosemite, we headed down into the valley to relax in one of the meadows and enjoy the sunrise. As we walked through the knee high blades of grass and wildflowers, the grass caught my eye. Each one of the thousands of blades of grass had dew, from the chilly night before, resting on the tips of each piece. I had to attach a special piece to my lens so I could get right up next to these microscopic water drops. I had to work quick before, if the sun got too high in the sky, I would lose the brilliant specks of sunshine in each of the drops. I searched for the perfect blades of grass that could express the small scale of the drops while keeping an interesting scene. The last photo I took of the grass ended up being one of my favorites from that morning. Two blades of grass with a "starburst" at their highest point, were connected by a small strand of a spiderweb, and the thousands of other dew drops can be seen shining in the background.
As springtime nears, the blooming wildflowers start appearing everywhere. I've never been a a big fan of flower photos, but as I walked through a a field of flowers in Texas Hill Country, I began to see the beauty in the detail I would normally take for granted. I treaded lightly through the field to find the healthiest looking flower and laid down next to it. The small folds in the petals and the grainy pollen caught my eye and I immediately grabbed my camera. I had to choose my lens carefully so I could get as close as possible to the flower and capture all the detail I could see with my own eye. I attached a special lens that allowed me to inch closer to the Poppy. As I released the shutter I knew that this was a unique photo, the clouds made the scene look like it was taken in a studio, not out in a dirt field. This photo has always encouraged me to look close at the finer things I might otherwise overlook everyday in life.
