Yosemite Reflection

I have always enjoyed photographing reflections and they don't get

better than those in Yosemite. Even though the water was moving fast

the clarity of this reflection is very good. To me reflections seem to

have a water color quality that is very appealing.

Leo,  

This is most create and unique - nice eye.  This looks like El Capitan reflected in the Merced river near the bridge.  The wood sticking out of the water creates the art here.  You may be a little blown out on the highlights.  Nice work.  Thanks for looking at my image.  Best regards.  Larry

Thanks Larry for taking the time to comment. As for my highlights, as you said they are hot but with detail and they where intentionally made so. My aim was to convey the values much as they were and extend the dynamic range so that I had a full range image, from pure black to pure white.

Layer upon layer of reflections.  Beautiful!  It's a very small nit, but I would have probably lined up the trunks of the trees with the left margin of the image.  They are leaning every so slightly, but enough to notice from someone like me who is always going around straightening things.  :-)  You have some great shots from your recent trip!

When viewed Large, this one pulls you in fast, but the thumbnail can't show what is hiding. So many things to investigate; the reflections of the trees, the grasses below the surface, the floating pieces. Real nice extraction from the bigger picture!

Thanks for the visit and kind words, Mark, it's always a pleasure.

Nice Amigo, really nice! Got to agree with our buddy Mark the bigger one really pulls you in..Lefty

 

Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment. You got an eagle eye, Christal there is a very slight tilt. However, the problem was if I completely straightened the tree, I introduced the trunk of the tree on the right which wasn't straight at all. I opted for a slight tilt on the left as I didn't want to crop.

Beautiful shot Leo.  Despite finding the image beautiful and iconic, I have paused here for a while wondering how you could make it even better and to be honest I am not quite sure.

Well as I think and write (always dangerous) I am wondering if I would have gone with a 3 image HDR to tame the highlights and bring out more detail in the trunk but without risking a 'flat' result. I also was thinking what i would do for a 2nd shot. and despite the popularity of the mountain, i might have concentrated on the tree trunk and it's reflection - perhaps in portrait mode and avoid the highlight areas of the mountain - maybe even shifting my location slightly to the right. 

I also wonder what this scene would look like early in the morning or late in the afternoon.

 

Hope you found this helpful!

 

All the best,

I hope you don't mind but I played with image a bit and always no claim that it is better - also it may not represent your vision or what you saw but it can be a talking piece. I used CS adjustment layers for shadow/highlight, brightness/contrast and color balance for a 'warmer' image - - some cases I used them 'selectively'.

I wanted to get more out of the tree trunk and it would have been easy to spend much more time editing this to make the contrast somewhere in between mine and yours.

 

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I have to stick my original vision. The highlights are hot but not without details which was my intention. As a full range image was my intention, the darker tree trunk, also with details, I believe fits within that criteria. Your much brighter image, to me, takes away from my original visualization. I not saying that your rendition doesn't have merit but as the artist it just isn't what I had in mind. .