Here is an image I took from the John Muir Trail. The view of Liberty Cap and Nevada Falls is pretty spectacular from this vantage point. And the hike from the Valley is a nice one on the way up especially along the Mist Trail.
BTW, the wet slick rock on the right is definately slippery even on the trail. I got a nice big bruise and cut from it. Oh well, as long as I stayed 'on' the trail it was fine by me. A slide down the side is a lot further down than it looks, trust me.
WOW, this really gave me a look into the past. I have a shot from this same spot with my old 35mm from way back when. Truly a beautiful site and a view I will never forget from this location too, Derek.
Nice shot Derek! A classic Yosemite view. I especially the shadows in the bottom right corner. I also checked out your website, you have some wonderful photos.
A lot of us could say been there, done that. This is a difficult lighting subject to capture well. The main problem is in order to not blow out the highlights of Nevada Fall, the rest of the landscape and especially all the forest and any shadows becomes dim. The only time I'll bother climbing up that trail with my gear is when the forecast is for some minor afternoon cumulous buildups. Such often develop over nearby Clark Range to Sentinel Done that then drift east over this area. The trick is to set up and wait until a small cloud shadow is only over the fall and not the rest of that landscape. More often a big cloud shadow sits right over Liberty Cap and doesn't move as it continually regenerates.
Yeah it really is an amazing view up there. It literally takes your breath away when you first see it. You definately just need to stop and take it all first before shooting.
Aaron, there is a section of the John Muir trail with a short rock wall which I was able to shoot from looking right over the cliff. I really liked the curved and chiseled granite shaded rock face on the right as well. And it was necessary to hang out a bit to capture that part in the frame. Something one obviously has to be careful doing!
David, I know what you mean about the challenging light. I was happy to get even a little bit of clouds in the scene on an otherwise clear blue sky day. And at sunset it looks to be in the shade. So I am not quite sure what would be considered the 'best' time up there. But I did meet a famous surfing photographer, cinematographer - Dan Merkel. He has been doing landscapes as well lately. He was headed up to shoot the same vantage point closer to sunset. I am not sure how that would work out. Either way it is a gorgeous view.
Well before sunset this whole landscape down in the canyon is in the shade. Thus by shooting when it is all in the shade and thus more diffuse with blue skylight with an DSLR and then manipulating the image in Photoshop, including separately working the sky versus landscape, one might create something. Though like all such images, the result would be nothing like the boringly drab image a human eye sees. A better approach to such work would be to do so when a cirrus cloud deck was over this zone casting warm sunset or sunrise light down on the landscape. The nice thing about the cloud shadow approach to any of the YV falls is it allows a relatively natural scene capture while the lousy reality is ideal momentary conditions are a long shot even on a day with buildups.
One of these days I hope to be able to thru hike JMT some summer. I can't imagine seeing vistas like this one, one after another for two to three weeks. I like the way my eye sweeps from the LRC up to the ULC along the sweeping trail of granite. Personally, I'd prefer it without the cloud, but that's just me... nice work!
A great view and a nicely captured image. Not much you could do about the harsher shadows on the right, but overall, this is quite good. Even though the falls are kinda far away, I like the detail and that you've frozen a bit of the movement.
Lon
Posted by Debjit Ghosh on May 27, 2009 at 10:14 PM
fantastic Derek. I like this view quiet a lot - the sense of vastness is profound. How about converting this into B&W and pulling some details from the shadows ?
Discussion
9 repliesThe smaller 720 image doesn't do the view justice. Here is a larger view: http://landandseaphoto.smugmug.com/gallery/7006312_tzV5E/4/538214203_zhfhF#544874858_BLwVp-XL-LB
BTW, the wet slick rock on the right is definately slippery even on the trail. I got a nice big bruise and cut from it. Oh well, as long as I stayed 'on' the trail it was fine by me. A slide down the side is a lot further down than it looks, trust me.
Derek
Yeah it really is an amazing view up there. It literally takes your breath away when you first see it. You definately just need to stop and take it all first before shooting.
Aaron, there is a section of the John Muir trail with a short rock wall which I was able to shoot from looking right over the cliff. I really liked the curved and chiseled granite shaded rock face on the right as well. And it was necessary to hang out a bit to capture that part in the frame. Something one obviously has to be careful doing!
David, I know what you mean about the challenging light. I was happy to get even a little bit of clouds in the scene on an otherwise clear blue sky day. And at sunset it looks to be in the shade. So I am not quite sure what would be considered the 'best' time up there. But I did meet a famous surfing photographer, cinematographer - Dan Merkel. He has been doing landscapes as well lately. He was headed up to shoot the same vantage point closer to sunset. I am not sure how that would work out. Either way it is a gorgeous view.
Derek
A great view and a nicely captured image. Not much you could do about the harsher shadows on the right, but overall, this is quite good. Even though the falls are kinda far away, I like the detail and that you've frozen a bit of the movement.
Lon