You were there in utterly beautiful conditions! (I was there yesterday, and my friends who had been there late last week kept exclaiming, "You should have been here on Friday!" (or was it Saturday) and "I've never seen the colors so beautiful!" and "the play of light and cloud was absolutely stunning" or "it was 'Charlie* light' all day!")
You have done a wonderful job of portraying the light and color in ways that are thoroughly believable to this long-time Yosemite visitor. It is tempting to crank up the saturation slider to levels that seem well over-done, but you have used some discretion in this regard. You have also done a fine job, I think, of handling the extremes of the dynamic range of your scenes. With the understandable exception of the undersides of some of the river rocks, you have done an admirable job of letting shadows hold light and detail, and (with the exception of a few spots of snow on top of those same rocks) you have avoided blown out highlights.
The light in the third photograph is really wonderful.
What I might try differently:
In your vertical format images, I sometimes feel like there may not be quite enough in the upper and lower extremes of the scenes to "fill" the full vertical space. If the first photograph were mine, I might consider a crop at the top that removed that bit of blue sky and reduced the amount of "empty" space up there - much like you did in the second, horizontal format version. I might also crop a bit at the very bottom, perhaps going so far as to remove the very brightest spots of snow on those rocks. I feel somewhat the same about that third photograph, with its very beautiful light. If it were mine, I would almost certainly crop a chunk off the top of the frame - there isn't a lot going on in that low-contrast area of the upper cliff, and its mass makes the beautiful core of the scene smaller by comparison. I'm less certain about the bottom - I might at least take a bit off there, though I can also see leaving the some amount of those leaves floating in the reflective water.
The final scene is, of course, an iconic one in the valley. However, in many ways I think of that row of beautiful trees (cottonwoods, I think?) as being central to that scene - yet you cut the lower border of the scene right through the middle of the trees. I would either eliminate them entirely or (better, I think) expand the composition to include the trees down to their trunks.
Having said all of that, you seem to have a way with this light. :-)
dswiger wrote:
Jason,
Nice set, especially the 1st 3
In #3, I would be tempted to try a 4x5 crop from the top to make it less centered.
BTW, I was there on Sat
Dan
Dan,
I'm trying different comps. I originally shot this because of the light and I liked the mirrored scene.
Glad you made it out on Sat as well. That was one crazy-great day
I think your suggestion was good on this one. Originally I kept that blue spot there as I thought it was pretty unique. Hole in the sky if you will. But then the more I look at it, it just became distracting because that was the first thing I would look.
I am a little torn about this one. I like both comps now. The tighter crop is more intimate and it does bring the viewer closer to the gold trees and the mountains. I do like the wider shot as well too..
I tried a 4x5 crop like dswiger suggested and your suggestions as well (not the crop dimension size, but just a crop). This one might be a work in progress because I am unsure which crop is the best or how to crop it to be honest. What drew me to this scene is of course the light but also the mirrored reflection.
this one I shot myself in the foot. Because there was a row of cars just below the tree trunks I made a decision and albeit looking back was a poor one. I should have just shot it wider to include the cars and later decide to crop or flex my PS muscle and clone them out. However, I decided to shot just above the cars which caused the trees to be cut. So unfortunately I can't extend the scene any more and cutting out the trees, while still an interesting photo, but without those splashes of gold, it not as interesting now. I really made a bad call on this one....
No wonder why this location is one top favorite place to shoot for landscapes, i wish to visit USA again and then visit some NPs including this one, i can spend all the trip/holiday long in this location only.
