joshcouts

I believe that the cacti in the foreground keeps this image from being a "stale subject".

 

Lone Pine peak is one of the more commonly photographed peaks in the Eastern Sierra, but most compositions usually just include various Alabama Hills rock outcroppings in the foreground, or cottonwoods or other desert scrub brush. I had not ever seen one with, not just a cacti, but an amazing cacti, in the foreground.

 

To me, it symbolizes much of what is so interesting about the Eastern Sierra in the clash of desert meets alpine wilderness with very little transition zone between the desert and the mountains. While the Tetons have just as much of an abrupt uprising as the Eastern Sierra, you don't see that unique transition from a desert ecosystem to an alpine ecosystem like you do in the Eastern Sierra.

 

I have spent hours searching for prickly pear or other cacti here in Colorado to anchor my foreground in images of this sort around the Gore Range or Flattops, and have ended up with the stale sagebrush foregrounds 99% of the time. The cacti was a great find, and I enjoy the fresh take it gives the image.

I do not think the image needs cropped at all. Frankly, I'd be upset if it was cropped. Cropping would take away from the depth that Marc is known for providing in his images (that many of the rest of us fall short on...), as well as remove those trademark flattened, rounded, multicolored stones and pebbles in the lakebed that we can see in the foreground, so commonly found anywhere from Glacier NP on north. I could follow the Continental Divide north from here in Colorado and tell you exactly when I'm nearing the Glacier NP area, by looking only at stones in the river and lakebeds. Even though I've never stood at this spot, I feel like I have, because those stones were left in the image. Good lighting shows up somewhere every morning and every evening, but small details like those that I can personally identify with are the ones I always keep an eye out for. Another excellent one Marc.

I'm in partial agreement with Christopher on this one. More than the "wrong time of day", I think it might be the "wrong time of year" for this composition, since Yosemite Valley is known for it's tendency to only allow certain compositions at certain times of the year when the setting/rising sun can sneak into the valley (ie Horsetail Falls on fire). The area of interest in this situation to me fall on the portion in and around El Capitan.

Had I been there when you were, I probably would have used either a polarizer or split ND (for B&W) to try to bring out a deeper/darker blue (or gray if you went to B&W), better depth in the clouds (since there are some near and some far, perfect for creating a good sense of depth) and more detail/contrast on the face of El Capitan. I'm still learning to discipline myself with red and yellow filters for B&W, but Ansel probably would have broken one of those out if he were there.

 

Even more so than those minor details (which could probably be altered in photoshop) I would have focused more so on El Capitan in the composition as the subject, rather than trying to get Bridalveil Falls and the valley in as well, since it's almost entirely shadowed and the camera wasn't able to capture the detail needed. It's a tough area of landscape photography to discipline ourselves with...I certainly still struggle with it at times. Take a look at Ansel's creations "yosemite valley, winter", "thunderstorm, yosemite valley", or "clearing winter storm" to see the difference light makes.

Despite those minor things which are easily fixable, you were in the right place at the right time, which is something that many people with all the technical skill in the world can't seem to ever do...