382 - Tall Trees Grove
Today we got a permit to the most exclusive club in all of the Redwoods- Tall Trees Grove. And oh was this club poppin'.
I was starting to feel a little better today, if you read my last two posts they were a tad melancholy. I decided I would go 100% without social media today (other than posting,) and try my darndest to enjoy the Redwoods for what they had to offer.
No worrying about likes, money, or vlogs. Just pure landscape. After all, we booked the perfect getaway. See, the Tall Trees Grove is a 4.5 mile hike in the *middle* of the Redwoods. And by that I mean there's no one out for miles and miles and miles. You even need a gate code to get in, because they're trying to keep it's beauty in the downlow.
Now, it's not hard to get a permit. You literally just go on the National Park Service website and reserve it 48 hours in advance. But it did feel like I was a A-List guest for a bit.
Once in, it's all downhill- 1.5 miles until you hit the bottom. And once you're there, it's a one mile loop around the "grove," which is a codeword for "the best redwoods."
On the way down, we saw this sap that straight up scared the shit out of me for a second. It looked exactly like blood:
“Blood Bark”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
ISO 320 ~ 28mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/100s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Seriously... Most insane shit ever. But we confirmed it was sap, as it smelt amazing... Unless we're secretly vampires...
Fun abstract photo though. I wanted it to be half wood and half sap so it could give the sap context. I also left the lines on the left so they looked almost like claw marks. Give the audience some creepiness, like what we felt.
Finally, we arrived at the bottom. Except we needed to do something first. This place also has another secret... It just happens to be the home of Hyperion, the world's tallest tree. The funny thing is that this tree isn't even on the trail, because the NPS wants to keep it hidden. Luckily, thanks FamousRedwoods.com, we got the coordinates.
Essentially you turn off right before the bench at the start of the loop, cross a river, then follow Tom McDonald creek up for about .3 miles until you hit 3 massive logs in the river. At this point you head to the right, and can see Hyperion (the tall redwood on the right.)
This made the whole thing feel like a REAL adventure, because we were straight up off trail. For a few moments I felt like I was a kid again. No worries... Just running up a wet creek trying to find a landmark we'd heard rumors of. And the walk there is FUN. You have to climb over logs, play leap frog on rocks, and are accompanied with some of the most lush scenes you'd ever seen.
I didn't end up photographing anything, I just straight up enjoyed it. I wanted something just for the memories. It felt important.
After this, we head back to the grove and I figured I'd bust out my camera and snag some bangers. The first thing I noticed was tree gradient. Yet another macro scene, but honestly that's what I need to do in these kind of places. There's so much shit going on I need to start small and work my way up. A lesson I learned at the Muir Woods in California.
“Leaf Fade”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
ISO 1250 ~ 70mm ~ f/5.6 ~ 1/250s
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Love the darkness in the corner of that shot. Looks so mysterious.
OK! Next up a decided to move up the scene ladder a bit. The first branch that caught my eye was this one sticking out straight sideways. I don't know HOW it grew so straight, but I NEEDED a shot of it. Conveniently, that light was hitting it perfectly. I think that's why I noticed it:
“Luminosity Limbo”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
ISO 1250 ~ 69mm ~ f/10 ~ 1/40s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Now obviously I had to use luminosity masks to pull that branch out more... I thought about desaturating those top ferns because they kind of take your eye away from the stick, but decided to keep them. I think they actually COMPLIMENT it nicely... Another parallel like of light can't hurt.
Finally at this point I decided I wanted to show off how tall these bad boys were. So I had to find some type of shot where I could position myself in it. The first thing I saw was this log that lit up fairly well, to contrast the forest below.
Now this is where Redwoods get technical. In my last Redwoods shoot, I learned the hard way that shooting up isn't for beginners. Unless, of course, you don't mind blown out skies.
The sky and the ground share such a large dynamic range, that exposure blending and/or HDR is highly recommended. But today I didn't want to. I figured TODAY would be the day I test out the TRUE dynamic range of the Sony a7rIII. So I exposed for the sky and prayed to the photography gods I'd be able to pull out enough detail below.
And... Eh... It worked. Ish. Check this out:
It looks all find and dandy, but mainly because I had to do a BUNCH of de-noising in the ground below. I guess I expected that though. Somehow, it still looks good though, if a little bit soft. We'll chalk it up to the Orton Effect and call it a day ;)
Oh! But we actually can't call it a day yet. I got one more shot! Haley was off shooting something and taking forever, so I decided to mess around with some ferns. Now I knew the next day we'd be shooting Fern Canyon, so I didn't want to SPOIL the mood, but I snagged this shot anyway because I couldn't help it:
I loved the vast field of ferns around here and it felt like this was the best way to capture it. Everyone always looks UP at the Redwoods, but never down at the ferns surrounding them. So this is how I decided to pay my respects, and give a dash of redwood in the top.
Overall, a solid shoot. It felt good to live in the moment a bit more, and not be so focused on shooting a side video for the "biz." I'm going to keep it this way this week, and make a decision about how I want to position myself videography wise next week.
Whew! Progress.
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
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