About the Image(s)

I am just back from a trip to Yosemite Valley. If not my favorite place to make images, it historically has to be my most productive. This trip in March was timed with hope snow and dramatic weather - something I have never been fortunate enough to witness at Yosemite. March is supposed to be the wettest month there, and still winter, so I thought I might up my odds. Hah, instead I was greeted by blue skies and 80 degree weather the entire week. So much for dreams of snow and mist.

Given the conditions, I chose instead to spend my time with the waterfalls, which with the warm conditions, were in full spring thunder. I have never been great at waterfall photography, but then these are much different scale falls than what we have in New England. The key was to manage some sort of unique lighting.

That came together one morning at Bridalveil fall. The fall itself was in shadow as the sun was behind the cliff walls that Bridalveil pours over. But there was considerable blowing mist from the fall, and when that mist blew enough, it would become back lit by the sun. Wow. Making images for a couple of hours, I got many different looks, even with the same composition. The image here is one of those - it is one of the less extreme ones where the backlit mist is only serving to warm the right hand side of the image and give a cool vs. warm variation across the frame.

While I think this image is pretty spectacular, let me tell you what I am not sure I like, and let you weigh in. Top of my list is the rock lip, about a quarter way up from the bottom and extending from the right edge. Does it draw the eye too much? Second is the decision on saturation of the colors. I've gone with a very pastel look here, making the image about light first, color second. Have I gone to light handed with the saturation knob? Finally, there is the question of whether the central "stream" of the fall is too dominating in brightness relative to the rest of the frame. Does it grab and hold too greatly, or does the image invite exploration of the whole frame?

I'd ask about noise, because if you dive deeply I am afraid there are some artifacts of the high ISO required to support a shutter speed truly "stopping" the water (which get going pretty fast falling from that height). But I am sure the noise issues don't come through at this resolution.

Sony a1, FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II + 1.4x Teleconverter, ISO 6400, f4, 1/6400 sec, polarizer