6/25/11
Weird light at the snack hut.
This snack food hut is located at Glacier point, Yosemite National Park, CA. The “hut” is really your standard convenience store that sells junk food and souvenirs etc, to people like me. I bought some dumb stuff like a baseball cap and a 2000 calorie giant donut (Cinnabon-ish).
I took this shot last year in late June while lodging at the Glacier point hotel. Anyways, as I was lurking the grounds at midnight with my camera, which I usually do (anywhere) with a bright moon, I saw some weird red light coming out of the store windows, so I thought I’d stop to take a quick shot of this building. The store really didn’t look all that great to the eye, but I knew it would probably come to life in a photo, so I spend the time to “set the scene” if you will.
What you don’t see in the picture is all the A-frame signs, movable product racks and garbage cans that were scattered all over the front of the place, (I suppose a necessary part of daily operations),
not to mention the split rail fence at the bottom that was smashed to pieces by a couple of park service employees that ran over it with a delivery truck earlier in the evening, I know that because I saw it!! The two lazy employees just laughed and left the mess behind, but I fixed the fence by propping up the cross rails with rocks and sticks, I also moved all the racks to the left side of the building in back of the bushes. Additionally, I put the signs and garbage cans behind the entry columns, out of view from my position. That’s what I mean by setting the scene.
Funny, but I didn’t care for the image after I shot it, and decided to do it again the next night while the moon light was about the same. Unfortunately, the red light coming from the windows was gone, and only a few dim yellow bug lights were lit. So that was it, no possibility for a re-do. I ended up cropping out the bad section of split rail fence which was at the very bottom; I also PS’d a puddle of water off to the right, and enhanced the bushes in the near left side to make them appear thicker.
Finally, I brightened the sky a little and added a vignette (dark corners) to frame it; most people try to eliminate this, but I like the effect.
This was not a paying job, I was on vacation, but I always like to try and hone my skills every chance I get. The Moon light and deep colors makes the picture work. Late night is a great time to capture images of normally busy places, without having to worry about too many cars or people spoiling the shot. If the moon is bright and at a good angle, you can come away with some good pictures.
Specs for the shot are; Sony A900, Sony 16-35mm CZ lens @20mm, ISO 400, 59sec (bulb), F/4.
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| Glacier point concession stand | |||||||||
