East of the Brigham Young University campus, in Provo, Utah, is a giant Y on the mountain.[1] It was originally intended to have all three letters, but it took so long to survey for the Y that they stopped at that.[2] Hiking up to the Y is an activity that many Utah Valley residents engage in during the snow-free months of the year. Last week Leann's friend April asked if we wanted to hike up with her one evening. We went, but I decided that I wanted to get a picture of the Y from one of the side mountains, instead. So I did a little trailblazing. Here are a few of the pictures I snapped along the way.
This one is a little dark because the sun was out from behind the clouds and the camera darkened everything in order to compensate for that.
To avoid the darkening seen in the first image, I took fewer pictures for this panorama. I think it turned out quite nicely.
I dealt with the sun in this one by hiding behind a ridge. I was so close to the dead tree on the right, though, that there was a lot of parallax [3] between the separate photographs that I took. Hugin [4] wasn't able to handle that very well, so if you look closely there are a few floating phantom limbs.
Along the trail, I spotted a few native legumes. Since part of Leann's job involves identifying the native flora of Utah, I consulted her about their identity. Her best guesses: Astragalus beckwithii (top) and Astragalus newberryi (bottom).
Notes:
[1] Putting a letter on a nearby mountain (or, in Star Valley, Wyoming, a star) is a common practice for high schools and universities in mountainous areas (e.g. the Western United States). I'm not sure if any of the hills in the Appalachian range are tall enough to merit putting a letter on.
[2] See http://yfacts.byu.edu/viewarticle.aspx?id=155.
[3] If you're unsure what I mean by parallax, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax. The animation is particularly instructive.
[4] See my post Make Your Own Panorama.
This one is a little dark because the sun was out from behind the clouds and the camera darkened everything in order to compensate for that.
To avoid the darkening seen in the first image, I took fewer pictures for this panorama. I think it turned out quite nicely.
I dealt with the sun in this one by hiding behind a ridge. I was so close to the dead tree on the right, though, that there was a lot of parallax [3] between the separate photographs that I took. Hugin [4] wasn't able to handle that very well, so if you look closely there are a few floating phantom limbs.
Along the trail, I spotted a few native legumes. Since part of Leann's job involves identifying the native flora of Utah, I consulted her about their identity. Her best guesses: Astragalus beckwithii (top) and Astragalus newberryi (bottom).
Notes:
[1] Putting a letter on a nearby mountain (or, in Star Valley, Wyoming, a star) is a common practice for high schools and universities in mountainous areas (e.g. the Western United States). I'm not sure if any of the hills in the Appalachian range are tall enough to merit putting a letter on.
[2] See http://yfacts.byu.edu/viewarticle.aspx?id=155.
[3] If you're unsure what I mean by parallax, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax. The animation is particularly instructive.
[4] See my post Make Your Own Panorama.
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