Reflections at Gates of the Valley

[HikinMike]

Found a nice spot to shoot the reflections of Cathedral Rocks. a dry Bridalveil Falls, and the Leaning Tower from Gates of the Valley (Valley View) in Yosemite Valley. No clouds so I composed this tighter and with a black and white conversion.

5D, 17-40, ISO 100, f/11, 1/40 sec and 1/10 sec hand-blended

 

[weepete]

Very nice!

 

[JoeW]

Yosemite...yum! Tons of great visual opportunities there. Some day I hope to visit there during winter with ice reflecting the sunrise and snow on the banks of the Merced.

Regarding your photo...thanks for sharing it. Lovely scene. For a peaceful scene, there is a lot of tension for me. The "horizon" or dividing line for the photo is the waterline/shoreline of the Merced River. Yet b/c of the bright areas (sky in the upper third, sky and especially the peaks reflected in the bottom third) that is where the viewer's eye goes (and really tending to skip over the middle third with the depth of shadow of the trees). I think you should choose to either emphasize the sky or the reflection more (which moves that "horizon" either up or down). It would allow more focus on the range of detail in the trees.

Also, I love B&W. But to me B&W is best when it emphasizes form. I'm thinking that color might be more impressive to this shot--that the lines/form is interesting but the combination of the blue sky and the reflection, the green of the evergreens, the face of the peaks--all would have a powerful combination of color.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[HikinMike]

Thank you Joe for the in depth critique, I really appreciate it. I had some other feedback saying to increase the contrast, so I'm going to post the revised version here. I will consider a color version. Thanks again!