El Capitan from El Capitan Meadow
Yosemite National Park, California, USA
20 June 2004 - 17:57 PDT (00:57 UTC - 21 June) - The Solstice!
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© 2004 Landis Bennett, All Rights Reserved.
Caption
Yosemite National Park is one of the crown jewels of the US National Park System and an official UNESCO World Heritage Site (Inscribed 1984). Located in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains the park is 1,200 square miles (3,000 square kilometers), and one of the most popular parks in the world. The most popular and well known area in the park is the 7-mile long, glacial-carved Yosemite Valley with its towering granite domes, hanging valleys, and thundering waterfalls.This panorama was taken in El Capitan Meadow. It opens on El Capitan; at 3,000 feet (915 meters), it is the tallest unbroken cliff in the world. The rock face continues its shear descent into the earth for another 7-10 miles below the valley floor. Across the valley from El Capitan are the Cathedral Rocks.
For the World Wide Panorama I wanted to photograph a special place. I was running a little short of time for the weekend that we were to shoot, but since nobody was planning on Yosemite and it is one of 2 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in California, I decided to go for it. I live about 5 driving-hours away and left early on the morning of Sunday, 20 June. After arriving, I hiked around a bit and took quite a few photographs and several panoramas. On the way out, I stopped in this meadow for the perfect spot. Putting the images together a couple days later I realized that I was taking this panorama during the exact time of the solstice!
Other World Heritage Sites that I've taken panoramas of:
Official: Carlsbad Caverns National Park, NM / Cahokia Mounds State Historic Park, IL / Glacier National Park, MT / Grand Canyon National Park, AZ / Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN/NC / Mammoth Caves National Park, KY / Olympic National Park, WA / Yellowstone National Park, WY/MT
Nominated/Tentative: Acadia National Park, ME / Arches National Park, UT / The Brooklyn Bridge, NY / Bryce Canyon National Park, UT / Canyonlands National Park, UT / Capitol Reef National Park, UT / Colorado National Monument, CO / Crater Lake National Park, OR / Death Valley National Park, CA / Denali National Park, AK / Fallingwater (Frank Lloyd Wright), PA / Joshua Tree National Park, CA / Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, AZ / Saguaro National Park, AZ / Washington Monument, DC / Zion National Park, UT.
Official: Carlsbad Caverns National Park, NM / Cahokia Mounds State Historic Park, IL / Glacier National Park, MT / Grand Canyon National Park, AZ / Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN/NC / Mammoth Caves National Park, KY / Olympic National Park, WA / Yellowstone National Park, WY/MT
Nominated/Tentative: Acadia National Park, ME / Arches National Park, UT / The Brooklyn Bridge, NY / Bryce Canyon National Park, UT / Canyonlands National Park, UT / Capitol Reef National Park, UT / Colorado National Monument, CO / Crater Lake National Park, OR / Death Valley National Park, CA / Denali National Park, AK / Fallingwater (Frank Lloyd Wright), PA / Joshua Tree National Park, CA / Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, AZ / Saguaro National Park, AZ / Washington Monument, DC / Zion National Park, UT.
360Geographics - Panoramas from all over North America of tourist destinations and places off the beaten path.
Equipment
Hardware: Nikon D100, Nikkor 18mm Lens, Kaidan QuickPan III SphericalSoftware: Kekus PanoTools/XPoints/PTMac/XBlend, Photoshop, CubicConverter, QT Player Pro, VRPrep
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