Dec. 2015 GOTM

Kathy,

OH MY!  Anyone who knows and loves Yosemite knows that this image is a gift of Yosemite.  Winter in the valley, changing and dynamic conditions;fog, mist; light, the place is magical.  Only a couple places to get this combo, so I'm guessing El Cap Meadow.

I love this and only wish I had something like this in my portfolio. Gorgeous light, the sun striking the fog lifting off the valley walls and the snow covered pines.  Add the little cluster of tiny trees at the bottom really just makes the composition.  Great title btw.

I also really like the warm/cool contrast between the bottom and top.  However, the snow in the cliff above the trees has a definite cyan cast to it.  I would hope you could retain the cool vs. warm, but at least for me the snow up top is too cyan.  Otherwise, this is a Yosemite gem.

I agree with Lon that there is too much cyan in the shadows, so here is an attempt to correct for that.

That back lit mist and the solitary tree take this already stunning composition over the top.  Jaw dropping awesome image, Kathy. I imagine many photographers can only wish for light like this on a visit to Yosemite.

Absolutely beautiful.  I like the original post. I would remove the cyan cast from just the snow on the first ridge, and leave the rest alone. But either way, great image!!!

Wow.  Great shot and amazing conditions!

This is a remarkable image in many ways. The lighting and the mist gives it a spiritual quality. It can say loneliness, individuality, courage, birth. It can symbolizes many things to many people. In that sense it's a powerful image. My only issue with it is that on my monitor the snow on those cliff looks cyan rather than the blue you see in shadows. I don't know if it looks that way to others but it should be easy to fix. Great composition as well. I love the shape of the mist that's holding above those trees.

Just read the other comments and saw the correction. I think there is still too much cyan in bg. I wouldn't warm up the image however.

Nice! Apart from the cyan-stuff that others mentioned, I would stick with the original. It's a great moment you captured there.

Kathy, What a wonderful image this is! Your comp works beautifully and I love the conditions you caught here. The fog across the bottom and with the small trees adds so much to the image. I like the look of the original but do agree with Igor and wish the cyan in the snow was more blue instead, otherwise I like it just as it is! Beautiful image with such a nice feel. 

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

Lovely light and stunning conditions. I agree with Harley. The original post has a nice balance of warm/cool, while the repost is too warm. You could easily remove the cyan from the background behind the trees and leave the rest as is. Honestly, I am on the fence with the very bright area adjacent to the tree in the meadow: it's just too hot to me. I love the details in the rest of the image and that mist hugging the wall.

--P

Very powerful and striking image. It basically has most everything you would want in a Yosemite Valley winter image. Nice conditions with good light and some atmospherics. And, not something that looks "typical". The cyan only seems too strong in the shadow areas on the first cliff face to me.  But I typically have issues with cyan myself!

Kathy,

Thank you for taking the time to rework and repost the image.  Actually, it was the background snow on the cliff with the cyan, not the "shadows" per se.  It's primarily the snow on the rocks inthe upper section, but also the snow atop the trees just right of middle (the ones still in shadow.)

What I typically do is open a hue/saturation layer (Actually Tony Kuyper's Sat/Vibrance masks) open up one of those and take the cycan layer and start to max it out - that will show you right away the areas I'm talking about.  Then you can reduce the cyan gradually to your liking.  HTH

Lon

Absolutely incredible image!   I would love to have shot this photo  But, being a geologist, I'm too much of a chicken to visit Yosemite with the HUGE bulge of lava just beneath the surface!  Sometimes, too much knowledge limits my sense of adventure  Just can't come to terms with visiting the surface of such an immense buried supervolcano............

Outstanding Kathy.  Love the light and the comp could not be better.  Sometimes you just show up at the right time and sometimes you show up at the right time and do everthing right.  That would be the case here.  Really nice work.

Spectacular composition here.  You really nailed the mood and I love the lone, centered tree.  It can be easy to shift cyan to blue in LR (no mask needed, just go the the hsl sliders, choose H and slide aqua toward blue.

I think this is just a wonderful image with great depth and the tree to me represents isolation and being alone.
Well done,
Jim

This is a great view, Kathy.  Love the lone tree with the fog/blowing snow behind it and how that snow is mimiced by the bright clouds along the cliff.  The cyan shadows have been reduced nicely in the repost, but there are still a couple of cyan areas.  Have you tried local adjustments using masks?

Lucy made the following comment that I would like to clarify...

...being a geologist, I'm too much of a chicken to visit Yosemite with the HUGE bulge of lava just beneath the surface!  Sometimes, too much knowledge limits my sense of adventure  Just can't come to terms with visiting the surface of such an immense buried supervolcano...

Lucy, I think you are confusing the lava dome below Yellowstone NP with Yosemite Valley. Yosemite Valley, and indeed the main Sierra Range (with two notable exceptions**) consist of several granitic plutons comprising the Sierra batholith. Extrusive volcanics are found mainly east of the main range between Lee Vining (Mono Lake-Mono Craters) and Mammoth Mountain, including the Long Valley Caldera in the Crowley Lake area. <div style="margin-left: 40px;">**the two notable exceptions are the Ritter Range and the Kings-Kern Divide which are highly metamorphosed metavolcanics.</div>
--P 

This is simply stunning. Great mood. I've seen a lot of images from Yosemite and this is just breathtaking. The Warm/cool contrast ist so beautiful.

Love this. The composition is immediatly arresting, and then the details and especially the mood hold my eye. Can't think of anything to improve.

Minus the very blown out spot behind the tree and faked dof in ps....this is rad.  Cool find!

aF

Hi  kathy This incredible scene  with the back lit mist   and the solitary tree  is  wonderfully captured   wish it  were mine

Albert Darmo
Canada

Kathy, what a beautiful scene you've captured here! I love the light, atmosphere, and that lonely little foreground tree.

I agree with taking down the cyan in the original version, but leaving the overall warmth as is. Also, I agree with Preston about the white area behind that foreground tree. It appears completely blown out. Any chance there's any detail in the raw file, or another expsosure that has detail? It would really help the image.

Oh my goodness, this is off the charts!

Kathy, congratulations on this image being selected for the Landscape Gallery WP. ......
Either image works as processed, but I think the original is slightly better with only needing the cyan selected on the hillside de-saturated a bit.

Regardless, you've got the composition so all the post processing can be to your own personal tastes.

Thank you everyone for the response to this photo. I'm so thrilled to have it chosen as a weekly pick in the Landscape gallery, a goal of mine. I'm very honored.

Beautiful setting and light condtions ! Congrats, hans

What a gorgeous and unique image Kathy. Excellent job seeing and capturing this!