Lost in Yosemite

One of the most popular hiking spot in California is Yosemite National Park!
Yosemite is packed with people all season, and, and most of all, it is gorgeous.

Surprisingly, it takes less than 4 hours to get to Yosemite from San Francisco Bay Area, but it requires a lot of planning. Here is something that you should know about Yosemite

Plan ahead
Yosemite camping is very limited. Some major holiday can be an year in advance, and, for early bird campsite, you definitely should get there before 7AM. I know it is hard, but plan ahead if you wanna camp in Yosemite. Outside of Yosemite, there are free public campsite, but there may not be restroom. You definitely bring shovel and toilet paper if you are camping outside.

When to go?
Yosemite is excellent most season, but you defintiely should go Spring to early Summer. The biggest reason is waterfall. It dries out. I went there in August, and some of the waterfall was gone. Especially because California is in drought recent years, you should plan Spring to Early Summer.

Early spring is cool for photos because you can get cool shots of snow, cloud, and fog covering mountain.

What to bring?
It gets very cold, so I suggest you bringing enough jackets and blankets. if you are going there in spring, rain gear and chains are necessary. Chains are very expensive if you have to buy up there. I think I spent $70 in April.

Where to take photos?
If you are looking for wide shots of waterfall and mountains, you don't hike drive on Yosemite roops because the closer you get, the harder to get nice wide shots. If you wanna get shots like Ansel Adams, there is a tour you can schedule. They will take you to some spots that he shot his photos. It is very cool because you meet some other photographer during tours.
If you wanna enjoy hike, I do Vernal fall/Nevada fall hike and Bridalveil Fall. This is mild hike, and you get pretty close to fall.

If you are a hard-core hiker, you can do Half Dome hike and El Capitan hike. It is pretty long hike, and you need wide angle lens, for sure.

Camera equipments?
rain gear. the closer you get to fall, the more mist you get. Bring something to cover your camera.
ND Grad filter. This is the place you wanna bring as many filters as possible. It's a valley/mountain combo, so you will be glad to have a filters.








These are all shots off driving roops.

Lost in Highway 1 (Half Moon Bay/Pescadero/Ano Nuevo)

When you drive pass San Francisco to South West, you start seeing beautiful coast.
If you are a surfer, you probably know the places like Taco Bell Beach and Maverick. Those are located along side of Highway 1.

Highway 1 is also known as one of the most beautiful coastal drive in California. Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel are a little South of here. People tend to skip these areas, but they got one of the most unique features that you don't wanna miss.

Half Moon Bay is a little beautiful harbor town where Maverick was held every year. Maverick is one of the biggest wave surfing competition which surfers have to paddle miles away to get a wave. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of mavericks because I don't have any lens to capture that far, and I don't surf. By the way, Sam's chowder house is definitely a good stop for a good clam chowder. Get New England style chowder, for sure. There is also Pumpkin Fest around Halloween time which is kind of fun to check it out.

Pescadero is a very small town along Hwy 1 which I could not even find a downtown. However, coastal formation, pigeon point light house are definitely something to capture. Just off Hwy 1, there is a restaurant called "Duarte's Tavern." They are on Food Network show that I worked on. It is pretty expensive, but their pies are pretty good.

Año Nuevo is kind of a secret state park for me where elephant seals come every winter for bleeding. If you wanna get really close to seals and their babies, you can make a reservations at Año Nuevo state park website for tours. Tours are the only way you can get very close to seals. Without reservations, you will probably not be able to get in tours, so plan ahead for this trip.

Fortunately, there are not much to get lost, so just stop any coastal access and pick your best coastal photos!!


Pigeon Point Light house




These are shots from a coastal access right after Pigeon Point light house. Great Cliff formation. Perfect for scenery photo and portrait. The guy is one of my good friend, Ryan!! By the way, the very last picture is not fake (many people tell me it looks fake.) It is a sea weed on rock.


Elephant Seals