Room with a View

This is real nice, Lon. It is not quite like I remember it looking, but ........   I have been doing a scroll crop and have thoughts of cropping the top to eliminate the large blue patch. It brings me more into the reflection. I go back and forth on it. Either way, quite a fine view. 

I would have called this "Two Worlds". The large version is a must see. My laptop doesn't fit the large version so I get to see the top half and the bottom half separately. And they are remarkably different. The upper world could be an image by itself because the face of El Cap is rendered so beautifully. The reflection is truly an under world. Mysterious, it draws you into it's darkness. When you look at the image as a whole it feels like the lower left area is a bit too dark. I just wonder if raising the shadows in the entire reflection would be a good idea. It's really a very good image and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Just trying to say something unique about it. BTW, it has the "Harley tilt" to the right, I think.

Loving it, Lon.  I do wish there was more color, or at least green, in the trees, but there's not much you could have done about that, I guess, LOL.  There are two things that really draw me in and make this image appealing to me.  One, the blue sky brightens and helps overcome the drabness of the tree color and, two, the rock face itself.  Being a rock freak, I'm agog at the beauty of the rock face, the color variations, and the "flow" of the rock itself.  That is incredibly pretty in the large view.  Amazingly, out of all the images I've seen of El Cap, I've never seen one from this angle or with so much color variation visible.  The usual shot is at sunset/sunrise and the face looks golden, but I prefer this "more honest" take on the colors.  You've done well with this!  Very well.

I forgot to mention, I really enjoy the reflection of the rock face too.

Love the moments when a storm clears, and this showcases that fleeting time.  Might brighten the shadows in the reflection, a little too dark for me.  Do wish I could see the whole wall of rock to see what was going on there, but maybe clouded in.  Feels very balanced with the square format and water line mid image.  Someday I'll get to Yosemite to see it for myself - maybe winter.

Wonderful to see a different view of El Cap, especially one that is so beautiful!  It's really refreshing and encouraging that you can still find original views, and even ones that are not full of people.  I just had to laugh when I saw Harley's comment, because my very first impression on opening the the large image and scrolling down to see it all was how much I enjoyed looking at the bottom 3/4, viewing the rock face only in the reflection.  In fact I was wondering it you captured a bit more of the sides in your two frames, so it would make a horizontal 5x4 composition with the whole bottom, but cropping the top a bit above the tree tops.  Not that there is anything at all wrong with this square composition; it has it all, and every inch is gorgeous.

Thanks for the comments, suggestions and observations thus far. Much appreciated - and always awesome when we can improve our images.

I agree the reflection is a bit dark, especially the LL quadrant.  I've tweaked that up in my master file.

Regarding the two halves or two worlds, I see that as well.  I'm kicking myself too now because I normally size my verticals/sq to max 1000px on the vertical. This time I went 1100px, almost insuring vertical scrolling.  This happens to me whenever I view any image where I have to scroll vertically to piece it all together - I think by default we end up seeing in sections or crops simply because the image is broken in parts.  When I see an image pop up whole without any scrolling, I think that certainly provides a more natural impression than seeing it in parts by scrolling.  At least that's what I think. It's still perfectly valid to consider a crop depending on what you like best about an image.

Yes, the top of El Cap was enshrouded in clouds - plus the fact at 28mm there was no way to include everything (Yes, I could stitch in rows, but I'm not that sophisticated - I'm still trying to get focus stacking down...)

I too really like the face of El Cap, and it's reflection.  Truthfully, the colors on the rock face are boosted slightly - I still try and maintain believability, but continue pushing the edge.

Bill - yeah, I wish there were more color in the trees as well.  It was a down year for the black oak as most of them just went brown - no intermediate colors.  We were too late for most of the Big Leaf Maple and other deciduous, still, pretty hard to complain about color in a place like this.

I'm pretty sure this is level, although I can't be certain.  I think what you might be seeing Igor is the horizon line of the grass/tree line. To the right, it looks pretty level. To the left of center, there's definitely a slant.  I'm gonna go with  the notion that the meadow grasses and treeline to the left are receding, also advancing towards the river bank, creating a narrow triangle that makes it looks like it's sloped?  Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  A keen observation for sure.

Good stuff, thanks for your comments!

This is really good Lon, one of your best for me.
I think the square crop works although for some reason (maybe the curved shore), it seems a bit constricted.
The muted colors are nice....

Lon, I love the light, the fog and the trees in this. The glass-like reflection is also very beautiful.

This next isn't really a critique, just something I noticed and now can't un-see. Overall, the image has a slightly distorted fisheye appearance to me. As I look at it more, I do think it's an optical illusion, because the grass/tree line is straight, but the river edge below it is wider in the middle, and then the treetops create an arch shape above and mirrored arch below. As nobody else has mentioned this, it's probably just in my head.

Craig,

YES, I saw that too and glad in a way that someone else sees it too.  It's a combo of things I think.  Certainly the shoreline that juts out a little in the middle. Then combined with the curved tops of the oaks - and their reflect accentuates that feeling.  I do get that fish-eye sense, but not the distorted one that you might see from a fish-eye view of a stadium or something.

Thanks for the comment and keen observation.

I really like this, Lon. It shows the grandeur of Yosemite very nicely. I think that rather than cropping the patch of blue sky in the URC, you could darken a bit. The reflection may be a little dark, especially the blue in LRC. The detail in the reflection shows up much better in the large version. Nicely done!
--P

Hi Lon,

After looking at the image a second time I am wondering what the scene would look like horizontal.  I don't know the location so I don't know if it is possible but that is what my mind is telling me.  Otherwise, nice clear, sharp reflection.

Stunning capture Lon!  I especially like the contrast ans color.

Lon, a true masterpiece!!! It brings me back to the first time I saw this majestic place, I felt I was in heaven. I think the misty clouds make all the difference here and nice that you were able to see it during a time of tranquility. 

Lon: Wonderful scene superbly captured. I'm pretty much OK with everything as is. You can confirm it's level by drawing a vertical line from some feature on El Cap to its corresponding point on the reflection. This looks good to me although if you wanted to be anal about it it's tilted clockwise about .4° . Marvelous shot.>=))>

I'm glad to see this picked by the editors. In hindsight I think I was too critical of it. Yesterday, in a restaurant of all places, I was thinking about your recent images and decided that this was probably the best. Congrats.

Thanks for the pick!  And thank you Igor - that was a very nice thing to say.