Yosemite Falls Color

Gallery: LandscapePosted January 4, 2013170 views6 comments

We had a unique situation in Yosemite several weeks ago. Over a four day period a relatively warm storm dumped over seven inches of rain. This transformed the mostly dry waterfalls to nearly springtime-like conditions. This in conjunction with the sun's low winter trajectory resulted in some brilliant rainbows. One morning I saw one in upper Yosemite Falls from the valley floor and photographed it. Although it produced some nice images, it was so far away that even with a 400mm lens it didn't have the impact I wanted so I hiked up the falls trail to get a better perspective. From this location I shot with a variety of lenses to capture the grander scene as well as closeups of washes of color. The next thing I knew three hours had passed and I headed back down the trail.

This was an interesting experience for me because I'm usually quite conservative with the number of frames and different compositions I shoot. In this situation every image was so different that I just kept firing. For this image I used a fast shutter speed (1/1000 sec) to freeze the water and highlight its texture. I may post some of the others...

C&C appreciated.

Canon 5dII
Canon 24-70 2.8

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Esme' Fantozzi on January 4, 2013 at 3:37 AM

Robb, I like it a lot, for the beautiful rainbow and for the texture of the rocks and water: the eye follows the flow of the water and textures go from much rougher at the top, to smoother flowing down. The fast shutter speed really works for me. Thank you for sharing.

Registered on July 27, 2006, 50 Posts, 300 Comments

Comment posted by R.Bill Moser on January 4, 2013 at 7:04 AM

You really had some nice condition. The rainbow is a great add to this scene. The shutter speed works well for me, too. Beautiful image

Registered on January 29, 2010, 285 Posts, 4281 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on January 4, 2013 at 10:34 AM

Neat capture of some special conditions. I like how your chosen shutter speed shows the texture in the falling water. Have you looked at cropping the top to just above the rainbow? For me, that removes the dark branch (crack?) in the upper left that's a bit distracting and lets that glorious rainbow act as an eye stopper at the top of the frame.

Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on January 4, 2013 at 7:11 PM

Rob,

This is fantastic! I honestly would have been hard pressed to recognize this as the bottom of Lower Yosemite Falls. We just don't ever get to see that channel at the bottom - I know I've never seen it. and you don't have any of the huge recognizable boulders in the frame either. this is a pretty unique take. And the rainbow? are you kidding? Wonderful!

The only thing I can suggest would be boosting the whites in the falls, especially below the rainbow. but that's minor.

This is just awesome - and cool!

Lon

Registered on November 24, 2006, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Palmieri on January 4, 2013 at 8:25 PM

This image has a lot of neat stuff going on. The rainbow obviously the star of the image. I love the shutter speed you chose to show the water, and the falls in the FG just ground the entire image. Very nice.

Registered on September 1, 2011, 35 Posts, 748 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on January 6, 2013 at 10:33 PM

Really love the texture in the falls and the rainbow just makes it more special. Something tells me this might be more massive than the image this size lets on.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments