I still vividly remember my first trip to Yosemite. A landscape I’d never seen before: sprawling mountains of geometric proportions, varied beds of colors—greens, yellows, beiges and browns. Fascinating as ever were the postcard-like spots that seemed commonplace, creeks that shined like crystals and waterfalls both so fierce yet calm that mesmerized my eyes and mind for hours.

It’s been 5 years since my last rather short trip to Yosemite, and this time, I brought my Mamiya 7 to paint the ever-relaxing scenes onto film.

My feet, weakened from quarantining at home, were not strong enough yet to hike those trails, but with our car and rental bikes, Yosemite nevertheless was a wonderful place to soak our minds into. Here are some of my favorites:

We also made an excursion outside of the park to the much overshadowed Mono Lake.

Known as the Dead Sea of California, Mono Lake also has miles of tufas, which are limestone formed by water mineral deposits. These strange looking structures spring up like organic forts by tiny creatures. It might just be my favorite leg of the trip.