The swinging bridge really swings, but this is a long exposure. How did I do it? Read on! . No HDR!
Free wallpaper for over 100 of my images in 6 different screen sizes is now available!
See the 1200 pixel version!
www.flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography/410367759...
--------------------------------------------------------
Settings etc.:
---------------------------------------------------------
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 17-40L @ 34
30-second exposure @F16 (to give the water and falls that smooth look)
LEE soft ND grad (100x150mm) 0.9
Lee foundation kit filter holder with Lee 77mm adapter ring
Hoya ndx-400 9-stop very very dark filter for long exposures during daytime
No polarizer.
ISO 50
Small Slik tripod with Manfrotto pistol grip ball head
RAW file processed with Capture One by Phase One
TIFF file processed with Photoshop
The angle of the afternoon sun was getting to be just right for the best view of the 2425 foot high Yosemite Falls from the swinging bridge. But it was mostly cloudy. So I waited about 20 minutes for an opening in the clouds to light up the falls. A group of photographers and other people had showed up to see the view. They moved bridge around a lot (it is the swinging bridge after all!) and I wanted a 30-second exposure with my dark filter. I really feel like a long exposure in this situation captures the mood and feel of the place better than a short exposure. I did do a few short exposures but there was something missing when I looked at them. So I deleted them. I do a lot of rather severe editing on the spot because I can compare them with how I feel at the moment.
I wanted a stable platform, so I climbed over the edge of the railing and down into a small space under the bridge on a concrete piling to make this image! I had about 2 feet of clearance for me and the tripod so I had to compose this without the viewfinder. It is a pain when you wait without moving for 30 seconds and then find out that the horizon is not flat because you can not look through the viewfinder. So it took 3 tries before I got it right. Then the light went away. I waited another 20 minutes in this rather uncomfortable position hoping for another chance, but that was it for the light for the day.
People were leaning over the bridge looking at me asking if I was okay. And they really gave me looks when I came back up. Also, it was hard to walk after being confined on a small spot of hard concrete for about 40 minutes! Was it worth it?
The map shows exactly where this is. It is an easy 0.3-mile hike from the nearest road.
See my Flickr profile for a link to my newly designed website.
.
Tags: landscape sky rock grass water reflection long exposure yosemite travel vacation waterfall yosemite falls merced river 5d canon MKII nature spring
© All Rights Reserved
Yosemite's 1612 ft. Ribbon Falls flows mainly in the spring and early summer. This may seem like a peaceful scene, but it was one of my most dangerous photo attempts to date. No HDR!
Free wallpaper for over 100 of my images in 6 different screen sizes is now available!
See the 1200 pixel version!
www.flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography/403913020...
---------------------------------------------------------
Settings etc.:
---------------------------------------------------------
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 17-40L @ 24
0.4-second exposure @F18
2 hours before sunset when the light is still on the cliff face.
LEE soft ND grad (100x150mm) 0.9 + 0.75
Lee foundation kit filter holder with Lee 77mm adapter ring
No polarizer. I wanted reflections in the water
ISO 50
RAW file processed with Capture One by Phase One
TIFF file processed with Photoshop
At 1612ft, Ribbon Falls is the tallest unobstructed free-falling waterfall in the United States and one of the tallest falls overall in Yosemite Valley. But people usually miss it. Angel Falls in Venezuela has a taller single fall of 2600 ft. (97 waterfalls are taller in total drop, but it is the 13th tallest single unobstructed fall in the world according to this world waterfall database:
www.world-waterfalls.com/database.php?s=N&t=H&ord...
Yes, this was a hazardous place to be. But I always look for alternative views where I can. This is not the Valley View lookout, but rather upstream from there. First, there had been a recent spring rain and the ground was muddy and the grass would sink in unexpected places as you walk. Once I got to the river, I realized that the place with the best view (right here) was a pile of logs that were swept downstream and had accumulated into a rather unstable pile in an eddy formed by the river. The only problem was that in order to get to this pile of logs, I had to walk across a few narrow logs marginally caught in about 8ft. of cold rapidly running water to the left of where I put my tripod for this shot.
So, with my camera in my backpack, I got two long straight branches about 12 feet long and managed to cross the logs supporting myself with my two branches. Once I was on the log pile, I had to wait for quite a while for good light to fall across El Capitan. It was nervewracking because every so often, the pile of logs would shift a bit, but it was worth it!
The only extra bit of composing I had to do besides getting close to the river foreground to dramatize the roaring river, was to center Ribbon Falls in between two trees for a more open view of it!
The map shows exactly where this is. It is a 1-mile hike from the nearest road.
See my Flickr profile for a link to my newly designed website.
.
Tags: yosemite el capitan bridal veil falls grass granite merced river landscape sky rock travel nature rapids meadow ribbon falls FrHwoFavs water river national park usa color high waterfall sun light shadow cloud blue
© All Rights Reserved
The long, dry California summer continues. So here is another image to recall the greens of spring. But the reminder of dry summers was all around me as you will read about below. No HDR!
Free wallpaper for over 100 of my images in 6 different screen sizes is now available!
I'm in the latest Nature's Best Photography magazine as a winner of the Ocean Views contest. Check it out on the news stands! Also, I'm in the Nature Conservancy calendar for 2010 and 2011!
See the 1200 pixel version!
www.flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography/389012171...
---------------------------------------------------------
Settings etc.:
---------------------------------------------------------
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 17-40L @ 21 (fairly wide to get it all into the frame)
30-second exposure @F11
HOYA NDX-400 9.5-stop filter (Very dark) for the long exposure.
LEE soft ND grad (100x150mm) 0.9
Lee foundation kit filter holder with Lee 77mm adapter ring
No polarizer!
ISO 50
Small Slik tripod with Manfrotto Pistol-grip ball head.
RAW file processed with Capture One by Phase One
TIFF file processed with Photoshop
Despite the popularity of Yosemite amongst photographers for over 100 years, it is still possible to see rarely-photographed views. And this is one of them. I've seen a few snapshots from near this spot but not with the view so open. That is because this view is blocked along this stretch of river as you can see by the trees on the right side of the river. However, of course I wanted to get the best view I could.
So, I had to climb out onto the burned out roots of a tree that extends out directly 15 feet above the river. Fires are common in Yosemite, in fact a big fire is burning right now but the LA fires are getting all the press. Large sections of the park are closed right now! Anyway, The root extended out far enough to see this entire scene free from branches. But I had to climb down a crumbly hill which dumps directly into the river and then scramble out onto this charcoal-covered root of a still-alive tree.
I almost didn't do this shot because it meant getting covered in black soot. And cameras and soot do not mix. So I had to be very careful. But I eventually made my way out and set up the tripod... just as a the dramatic layer of clouds decided to clear. Aargh! So I had to balance on this root for about 30 minutes until another cloud went sweeping by El Capitan. Once there was some decent light on the green tree to the left, I made a few images, of which this is the best one. I used a long exposure to show the sweeping movement of the cloud. A shorter exposure would have looked fine to capture the water movement so it was the cloud movement that made me use the long exposure.
The map shows exactly where this is. It is a short hike from the nearest road. But the road is one-way and there is no obvious place to pull over. If you miss your spot (well before the closest apparent spot on the map), you will have to drive all around the valley to get back! So drive slowly. And you still have to hike even from the closest spot.
See my Flickr profile for a link to my newly designed website.
.
Tags: landscape sky rock grass yosemite el capitan merced river forest stream sater long exposure granite fog mist travel vacation sierra paradise nature waterfall ribbon falls hoya ndx400 spring wallpaper art california river rapids stone cold
© All Rights Reserved
Clouds streak over the top of El Capitan as the Merced river flows by. No HDR! In an hour or two, I'll send out my newsletter and reply to my stack of emails.
Free wallpaper for over 100 of my images in 6 different screen sizes is now available!
See the 1200 pixel version!
www.flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography/375438556...
---------------------------------------------------------
Settings etc.:
---------------------------------------------------------
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 17-40L @ 17 (very wide to get it all into the frame)
30-second exposure @F13 (to show the cloud movement)
LEE soft ND grad (100x150mm) 0.75
Lee foundation kit filter holder with Lee 77mm adapter ring
No polarizer.
ISO 50
Small Slik tripod with Manfrotto pistol grip ball head
RAW file processed with Capture One by Phase One
TIFF file processed with Photoshop
Topping out at more than 3,000 feet above the 4,000 ft elevation Valley floor, El Capitan it is the largest vertical monolith of granite in the world. There are a few monoliths that are bigger on the sides of the Andes and Himalaya, but they are not pure granite. There are even larger cliffs of granite in Yosemite but they are not completely vertical. El Capitan is opposite Bridalveil Fall and is best seen from the roads in western Yosemite Valley, including Tunnel View, Bridalveil Fall area, and El Capitan Meadow.
This is a bend in the river near the meadow. I had the lens as wide as I could get it with my 10-stop dark filter on to get a very long exposure to show the clouds streaking ofer the top. This view is huge!
I waited for some clouds to streak over the top and just as they appeared, I began the exposure so they would move across the clear blue sky. I also waited for the sun to be at a near 90-degree angle to the cliff face to show more detail.
The map shows exactly where this is. It is an easy 0.5-mile hike from the nearest road. The road is actually nearby but the nearest pullout is down the road a bit. And if you miss it, you have to drive all the way around the valley on the one-way road to get back!
See my Flickr profile for a link to my newly designed website.
.
Tags: landscape sky rock grass water merced river el capitan yosemite reflection granite long exposure travel vacation california sierra nature paradise waterfall usa pine cedar ribbon falls wallpaper geotagged canon 5d mkII monolith
© All Rights Reserved
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.
Free wallpaper for over 100 of my images in 6 different screen sizes is now available!
See the 1200 pixel version!
www.flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography/364398562...
---------------------------------------------------------
Settings etc.:
---------------------------------------------------------
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.
See my Flickr profile for a link to my website where I have limited edition prints and less expensive open edition prints.
.
Tags: landscape sky rock grass yosemite tuolumne river water long exposure snow meadow travel vacation nature usa california pine tree cloud 5d mkII canon Ostrellina —ObraMaestra— PhotoContest-TNC11
© All Rights Reserved