Niterider, I like your pics. Show more if you have any others.
Yes, it's a lovely park, someday I will visit. It sounds like there's no shortage of people shooting pics there, though...and there's also no shortage of pictures of the park done by well known photographers.
The reason people walk around with a 70-200 f/2.8, is because they don't look like a big shot photographer unless they have one. They see the photo press on tv, all of them have one, so they buy one. I assume they are there to shoot wildlife, or else to take some of family or friends while with them...or something.
Every time I visit the parks in my area (such as the Smokey Mtns), there are people with wide angles, and people with 70-200's. I usually go with a wide zoom and some exotic medium prime lens. What did not surprise me last year (via part of the Blue Ridge Parkway), were the billions of extremely loud Harley Davidsons piloted by gray haired couples, complete with micro dog in the wife's purse or backpack. Every stop possessing fresh grass and picnic tables, smelled like horrible tiny doggie poo!
What did surprise me was the multitude of people shooting standard wide angle landscape shots in the daytime, on tripods. I fail to see the logic of this. If they're shooting macro, or wanting to participate in the "stream water as smoke" fad, with long exposures and ND filters, that's one thing. Or if it is late afternoon light, then yes I can see needing a tripod. But if they are not doing long exposure, there's no reason for a tripod in mid afternoon light, in my opinion. It certainly limits the total number of shots you can take, to constantly move around a tripod and set it up, and aim the camera, etc. I had rented a 1D4 with 24-105 IS. I shot about 1400 pictures over a day and a half. With the IS, I was able to close the lens down to f/16 or 18 at times, to try to minimize CA at the wide end, and still got sharp shots handheld even if the speed was less than 1/100. I felt like a bigshot with the big 1 series around my neck, but nobody really seemed to notice!
When I visit Yosemite, I think it will take me several visits to figure out what's been least photographed, but still is worth shooting. Ideally I would do night photography of the comet later this year (assuming it lights up like they say), but I have a feeling something or some park ranger would try to stop me...stuff like that always happens ("sorry folks, the park closes at 5pm, it's time to go home"). If I can't do it there, there are other parks and other nice places. There won't be a shortage of other people shooting the comet, either...will be kind of hard to stand out from the crowd...or rather impossible.
