Our tree house in the morning light.

First stop of the day was the Tunnel View lookout. This is the perfect place to get *that* Yosemite shot.

We stopped at a river while on the Cook's Meadow Trail to get some photos and noticed some deer grazing in the grass.

We couldn't get over the views you could see from pretty much anywhere in the park. I've never seen mountain/cliff formations like this before, and they would tower around you wherever you were.

This is THE spot that Sam and I wanted to go to more than anything. Yosemite Valley is a gorgeous lookout from the bottom of a river and all the shots that made us want to come to Yosemite National Park were taken from here.

Needless to say, we stuck around for quite a while taking a million photos.

Onwards we went to Yosemite Lower Falls. I've included more information about the hike at the bottom of this blog post!

Reading about these falls online and visiting them in person was a completely different experience to what I was expecting. I loved them, but I didn't realise there wasn't a hike involved at all to get there, so naturally it was (in my opinion) what looked like the most popular place for everyone to hang out. There were lots of people trying to escape the summer heat by swimming in the water! If I ever go in non-peak time I would love to hike to Upper Yosemite Falls!

We had fun scaling the unsuspecting slippery rocks to get as close as we could to the waterfall. We didn't get too close but enough to feel the cool mist on our hot skin. It was bliss!

A very friendly squirrel who came up to Dan and sniffed his camera.

Extra information on some of the trails we did:

Lower Yosemite Fall Trail

hike length: 1 miles

hike time: 20 minutes

difficulty: easy, the entire hike is a paved footpath

Cook's Meadow Loop

hike length: 1 mile

hike time: 30 minutes - there are quite a few spots to stop and take photos along the way!

difficulty: easy

other posts about hikes: Mirror Lake // Bridal Veil Falls

Since we were only in Yosemite National Park for a short couple of days, we wanted to see as much as possible so we picked the easier trails that took less time. I can't wait to come back next time and be able to spend time hiking to Vernal & Nevada Falls, as well as the Half Dome one day!

all photos edited with my lightroom preset Disposable Film | black and white photos edited with my lightroom preset Ghosts

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Lake Bled Photography Spots, Slovenia

I spent a morning doing landscape photography around Lake Bled in Slovenia using the Sony A7IV with the GM 35mm f1.4 lens.

LUMIX S5II Street Photography in Tokyo, Japan

This blog post includes some of my favourite photos I took during my time in Japan with the S5II. If you want to hear my complete thoughts and review of the S5II capabilities for photo and video, you can watch my review video here.

LUMIX S5II Autumn Portraits in Japan

In November, I was invited to Japan by LUMIX to attend the LUMIX Global Summit for the announcement of the new LUMIX S5II. Paired with the new camera body and an array of lenses, Dan and I took to the streets of Tokyo, Japan to film our review video of the camera body.

LUMIX S5 Street Photography, Japan

In November, I was invited to Tokyo, Japan by LUMIX to attend the LUMIX Global Summit. They didn't tell me what was going to be announced, but I was very excited to find out because it sounded like it was going to be something big. On the morning of the event, I met Pav and we went for a little photo walk around the streets of our hotel. For this trip, I decided to bring the LUMIX S5 with me to test it out for photo and video.

LUMIX S5 Autumn Portraits and Exploring Tokyo

In November, I was invited to Japan by LUMIX to attend the LUMIX Global Summit for the announcement of something new. I left Sydney with Dan, Aaron and Simon in the evening and we landed in Toyko, Japan the next morning. We were all a little tired from the overnight flight, but we decided to head out and explore Tokyo since we had a free day before the event.

Lake Gosau, Austria with the Sony A7IV + GM 35mm f1.4

We set off the loop walk around the lake and it was such a stunning stroll. I loved every minute of it and kept stopping to take photos. I was contemplating coming here for sunrise but I'm happy we visited in the afternoon. The second half of the lake was all backlit and I captured some of my favourite photos where you can see the moon plus the jagged peaks of the mountains. Austria is SO incredible!

Sunset in Hallstatt, Austria

It's been a long day starting at 4am for sunrise landscape photography, then a trip to Lake Gousau and finally a stop in the town of Hallstatt. I have visited Hallstatt a few years ago during the spring. It's strange on that trip I was wearing a thick turtle neck jumper and on this trip just a light dress!

Moon photography in Purgg, Austria

As I was getting ready to go to bed for a sunrise start the next day, I noticed the moon outside our bathroom window. It was in a crescent shape during blue hour and headed towards the jagged mountain peak. Dan quickly set up the tripod for a timelapse while I snapped a few photos. I started with a closeup shot of the moon with my 200-600mm f5.6-6.3 OSS lens.

Wide angle VS Telephoto Lens for Landscape Photography in Austria

I set my alarm for 4am, Dan and I hopped in the car while it was still dark and drove to our first location. We had scouted a couple of sunrise spots the day before. This spot was a nothing place - not a landmark or a viewpoint. It was by a little carpark for an army base just off the side of the road.

Prague on 35mm Film

This is the last part of my mammoth blog series from my time in Prague, Czech Republic. I have recently been loving shooting on 35mm film again, specifically with point and shoot cameras. I brought the Contax T2 and Olympus Mju-ii with me on this trip and I used both those cameras to take the photos in this blog post. I used 2 film stocks including Fujifilm C200 in the Mju-ii and Portra 160 in the Contax.

4 Comments

viewpoints, yosemite national park