Reflections of El Capitan (Yosemite)
Thwack
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I spent a couple days in Yosemite earlier this month and found a couple new spots to shot El Capitan from that produce nice reflections on the Merced River.
The water level in the river was low enough that it was flowing very slowly…producing a glass-smooth reflective surface as long as there was no wind.
Here are a couple of my favorites:
#1: El Cap & its reflection
#2: Glassy surface reflection plus a hint of Fall color:
#3: A bit of wind swept in and provided some "texture" to this shot:
The water level in the river was low enough that it was flowing very slowly…producing a glass-smooth reflective surface as long as there was no wind.
Here are a couple of my favorites:
#1: El Cap & its reflection
#2: Glassy surface reflection plus a hint of Fall color:
#3: A bit of wind swept in and provided some "texture" to this shot:
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Cheers, Richard.
Cheers,
-joel
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Thanks! That was (I think) the last shot of the morning before we moved on. The wind started really churning the water's surface and that spot of sun on the far side was spreading quickly. I was worried the wind had created too many surface ripples but the picture came out much better than I expected.
#2 was the first spot along that area where I discovered El Cap's reflection. I had walked down to the water's edge expecting only to be able to catch some Fall color reflecting in the water. El Cap didn't show up in the water/reflection until literally one step before reaching the edge of the bank. It was a very pleasant surprise (and a reminder that next time I should look up more often to see such things coming).
Thanks for the kind words, Joel!
#1 was taken a few days after #2. I retraced my steps to make sure I could find the spot I'd shot from for #2. In the process, I discovered another path to the river's edge that offered a wider variety of angles on El Cap as well as some other cool reflection shots.
There's a tiny island near where I shot #1 that looked like a perfect place to shoot from. But, it was too cold outside to wet-wade. Next time, I'll bring knee-high water proof boots or waders so I can explore more. Here's another El Cap reflection shot showing the edge of the tiny island (as well as frost on the grass proving it was too cold to wet-wade)
After leaving the spot where #2 was shot, it dawned on me that it might make a great shot to pick up evening light hitting El Cap. We ended up going back instead to the slightly more versatile position where #1 was shot.
It had been sunny all day but clouds low on the western horizon were threatening to block the warm evening light. We got lucky after all and the sun was just able to sneak under those low clouds and cast the final bit of evening light on part of El Cap after all:
My new 10-24mm super wide lens got a work out at that spot. I have another shot showing El Cap and its reflection with evening light but haven't finished tweaking it yet. The reflection-only shot will have to suffice I guess.
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Thank you. It's a great time of year to be there!
Though, Winter's coming and I've had some really cool shooting days after there's snow on the Valley Floor…
But then again, if you get there in late February and the weather cooperates, you'd have a chance to catch Horsetail Fall's famous "firefall" effect off the back side of El Cap.
Dang, a few more trips and I can make my own El Capitan calendar.
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I really like the first shot. I wish I could see the top of the tree on the left. It may be cropped, but it's a minor detail. Very nice.
Thanks for the feedback.
I cropped part of the left edge off the first image, but kept the picture's original height intact. The EXIF data shows that pic was shot at 10mm so my super wide was fully open. Stepping back I think wasn't an option because I'd have to step further up the bank and the bank would likely clip the top of the reflection.
The top of that tall tree towards the left I think is at most a pixel or two cropped. I pretty much got it all.
I suspect I'd need the same lens on a camera with a full-frame sensor to get sky above that tree. The left edge was cropped mostly because there was a much taller tree over there that was severely cropped. It also didn't add anything to the picture because it was well left of El Cap.
I was shooting really close to El Cap. It's much more common to shoot from the River View pullout. That's on the other side of the river from where I shot these, but there's a bend in the river that lets you still get reflections of El Cap even though you'd be on the same side of the river as El Cap. That place lets you get shots like this (taken three months ago when the river was flowing a bit faster):
Thanks, Dan. Catching the Fall colors out there is a blast. Lots of evergreen trees though so sometimes you have to hunt for what you want…
A storm had moved through the day before leaving snow along the sides of the road from before the Highway 120 entrance to well past Crane Flat gas station. Even along the valley floor, if you found a shady enough spot, small amounts of snow and ice were lurking.
Wind was whipping pretty good along the river so the place most of the reflection shots in this thread were taken wasn't working. As we were heading out, I stopped at the River View pullout "just in case" and lucked into a great view.
Low clouds were hanging over the east end of the valley and were catching the evening light. Here's the best shot I came away with (that's the moon near the top edge even though it looks like the sun…this was a 13 second exposure at f/11, ISO 200, 10mm, slightly cropped):
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Thanks for the feedback on both versions of that shot. I was really jazzed to see the Moon-Muench Star when I got home and open the raw picture on my laptop (the camera's LCD was far too tiny to see the star at the normal "review" size and I didn't think to zoom in on it in the field).