Yosemite's Tuolumne river flows through the meadow early in the morning on June 16th. There was snow overnight here at 9,000 feet above sea level, but it melted in the rain as I hiked out here before sunrise. No HDR.
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Settings etc.:
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Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 17-40L @ 37
25-second exposure @F16
Hoya ndx-400 10-stop filter - Very dark!
LEE soft ND grad (100x150mm) 0.9 + 0.75
Lee foundation kit filter holder with Lee 77mm adapter ring
No polarizer! I wanted reflections to add realistic texture.
ISO 50
RAW file processed with Capture One by Phase One
TIFF file processed with Photoshop
Tuolumne meadows is just about 15 miles from Yosemite Valley but it takes over an hour to drive here because there is no direct route and you must go from 4,000 feet above sea level in the vally to nearly 9,000 feet here. It is an all day hike if you go that route. I stayed overnight in a tent nearby to be here before sunrise. The weather is much different at this elevation, with snow at any time of the year! It was 5 days from the longest day of the year and spring is just arriving in the spongy tundra-like soil.
It was a nice sunrise, but the best light happened here about 30 minutes after sunrise as the light filtered through the trees in the background. I found this composition and stuck with it. I had to wait for quite a while it seemed for the light to spread into the right places. I wanted a dark background and brighter bushes in front so show how dramatic it feels to be here.
Almost everything was moving from the clouds, to the bushes and water. I used a very dark filter so that I could make a very long exposure with relatively bright light. The long exposure was the best way to show just how much movement there was.
Also, the long exposure time smoothed out the water so you can see the bottom of the river like I could. A shorter exposure time would freeze the motion and obscure the view of the rocky bottom. With my eyes, I could see the bottom as the water flowed along. So for me, this is more realistic than a shorter exposure with the water frozen in place. I can still imagine the water flowing over that rock in front!
The map shows exactly where this is. It is a 1-mile hike from the nearest road.
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