Every year I head to Yosemite National Park for my birthday. Last year was a fluke year and it was miserably cold and snowed on us. The weather for our trip this year looked only mildly better but turned out to be absolutely gorgeous. It was warm (perfect hiking weather, not too hot but not cold), sunny, and just wonderful.
On Sunday we slept in a little bit, packed up the campsite, and ventured over to Hetch Hetchy, an 8 mile long man-made reservoir that feeds San Francisco and the Bay Area with clean drinking water. In the early 1900s the OShaughnessy Dam was built that turned the gorgeous Hetch Hetchy Valley into a reservoir. Today you can hike along numerous trails on the edges of the reservoir.
We started the 5 mile round trip hike to Wapama Falls and found this butterfly enjoying a wonderful purple flower. I only had my 17-35mm f/2.8 lens with me and didnt think I could get a decent shot before the butterfly flew away but she decided to stay and hang out for several minutes while I clicked about 60 shots and got nice and close (note that this was shot at 35mm). If only I had my 105mm macro this could have been even awesomer of a shot
Nikon D300s w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S:
35mm, f/3.5, 1/1250 sec, ISO 320, Handheld
BW F-Pro Circular Polarizer
