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THE CONTEXT

I went to Yosemite on Feb 18. As I was driving through the valley, enjoying the scenery and making my images, I noticed a group of about 50+ serious photographers all bunched up at one spot along the South Drive in Yosemite Valley. They were all standing beside their tripods, with their 70-200mm lenses pointing in about the same direction. I was curious and couldn’t wait to find out what they were up to. I stopped my car, walked up to this group and inquired what was going on. One of them shared with me that the horsetail falls would light up in the last light of the setting sun and that they were all waiting for that magical moment to be photographed. I immediately recalled my reading of Galen Rowell’s book, “Mountain Light”. Galen had photographed this phenomenon and had also provided insight into the precise time of the year when this magical phenomenon would occur. It did not happen all the time, because of the changes in sun’s trajectory relative to the location of the falls. A special time of the year indeed.

WHAT OTHERS PHOTOGRAPHED THAT DAY

At the time of this writing, I just searched Google Images for “glowing horsetail falls yosemite” and just saw several hundred images, all looking about the same. There are just a handful of them that are unique. For example, see this great image, made coincidentally on Feb 18, by Michael Frye – http://www.michaelfrye.com/landscape-photography-blog/2016/02/19/horsetail-el-capitan/.

MY REACTION

After settling my curiosity on what was going on, my instinct was to move on and continue to find my own images. Being a passionate photographer myself, I did not feel like joining them to wait for that magical moment. My heart was not there. Joining this crowd to repeat what they were doing, to make an image just like theirs, would not give me any joy and I did not want to have anything to do with it.

MY VISION

I find satisfaction from my photography, only if the photograph represents something I found. I do not consciously copy what others do and I get no joy from doing so. Since all of my photography knowledge and skill is based on studying the works of great photographers that have walked before me, no doubt, there is a subconscious influence from them. My composition style is certainly subconsciously influenced by all the great photographs that I have seen in the books that I have read. In that sense, I am not original. At the same time, I do not study a famous photograph of Yosemite tunnel view or Half Dome and go there to duplicate it. If I had joined that group of 50+ photographers that day, I may have walked away with a stellar photograph of a great phenomenon, but it would not represent my vision and would therefore give me no joy. I have seen many photographers, many of them in my own photography workshops, who go to a location and do the following. They set up their tripods, and then look up other famous images of that location on their iphones and try to recreate it. Being there in excellent light was by itself not sufficient. They need this iphone review of past great images, to inspire them. I am exactly the opposite. When I visit a new location, my research through TripAdvisor, Google, Wikipedia and other sources, is restricted to figure out where to go, but never to study previously photographed images of that location. I go there, soak it in and let the place talk to me. Once a particular scene touches my visual heart, I pull out the camera and work on dissolving myself (get lost) into the scene. I capture some compositions and keep fine tuning until I feel that my vision is exhausted. In fact, if there is another photographer in the vicinity, I usually walk away until I find some solitude to work my vision unhindered.

That day, when the group I ran into, were set up to capture the glowing horsetail falls, I simply moved on and made my own images. Here are my 7 keepers from my day trip to Yosemite on Feb 18. None of them may be as stellar as Michael’s horsetail falls shot, but these are images dear to me as it represents my original vision. I made them alone and haven’t seen another photographer’s work look similar to these. These are mine and therefore extremely fulfilling for me.

El Capitan and Afternoon Clouds
El Capitan and Afternoon Clouds, Yosemite, CA.

Usually, I refrain from making landscape images in the afternoon. Most of the time, I shoot early at sunrise or late at sunset. However, the afternoon clouds offered an incredible sight on Feb 18. The uninteresting afternoon light prompted me to give it a black and white treatment.
Runoff stream from Bridalveil Falls, Yosemite, CA
Runoff from BridalVeil Falls, Yosemite, CA

While the BridalVeil Falls by itself forms interesting viewing, it did not offer anything photogenic for my eyes. I ended up spotting this area of its runoff. In fact, I made over ten different compositions at this spot and finally picked this as my keeper. The black and white treatment emphasizes the colorless winter look.
Trees and Reflection, Yosemite, CA
Trees and Reflection, Yosemite, CA

Whenever, I see water bodies, I look for compositions similar to this one. The emphasis is on the reflection in the water, while the trees above water provides the context. The strong dark tree trunks in the left (along with its reflection) anchors an otherwise floating green scene.
Trees and Reflection, Yosemite, CA
Trees and Reflection, Yosemite, CA

This is another interpretation of the scene depicted in image 3 above. I couldn’t resist the lure of the panoramic. There is something very attractive about the 1:3 format for me. A series of floating dark tree trunks are anchored by the strong pair of dark tree trunks on the right of the image. Several individual frames were stitched to create this one. Viewing this in a larger size on a large monitor brings out its glory better. Try viewing this same image on a large monitor from my website gallery in the panoramic section.
Vertical Face of El Capitan, Yosemite, CA
Vertical face of El Capitan, Yosemite, CA

Later in the afternoon, the clouds continued to mesmerize. This time, I witnessed how the vertical face of El Capitan and its magnificient size could be emphasized by showing how it rises into the clouds. Again, couldn’t resist the lure of the 1:3 format, but in the lesser used vertical form. I stitched several frames vertically to create this. The vertical pano format also emphasizes the height of this famous rock. The uninteresting afternoon light called for black and white treatment.
Trees and reflection, Yosemite, CA
Trees and Reflection, Yosemite, CA

Here is another location that offered an excellent photo opportunity with mirror reflection of interesting trees with dark trunks. I shot this originally in the native format of 2:3, but cropped a little to emphasize the reflection. Again, this image has a greater impact when viewed in larger size. View this in the Landscapes (color) section of my website gallery.
Trees and reflection, Yosemite, CA
Trees and Reflection, Yosemite, CA

This is another interpretation of the same scene shown in image 6. Again, I couldn’t resist the lure of the 1:3 panoramic format. It is debatable which of image 6 and 7 is better. I like both of them because I made them – my wife and kids love image 6 better. This image is also better enjoyed as viewed larger from the panoramic section of my website gallery.

Walking away with 7 landscape keepers from one day’s shoot is unusual for me. I usually find one keeper out of a day’s worth of effort. Some of these images will eventually be deleted. I think two of them may survive over time. Since these are my new babies, I like all of them for now.

CONCLUSION

My point of this blog is not to belittle those that wanted to create the magic originally seen in Galen’s image of horsetail falls. In fact, I am not sure if Galen was the first one to do it, but certainly his image is the earliest I have seen. Also, Michael Frye’s image points out how one can be original even today, with the same old location. My point, however, is that I see far too many photographers attending my workshops who are very happy simply recreating other images they have seen. In fact, they keep visiting the same iconic locations that have been over-photographed. Through this post, I want to encourage at least some of you serious photographers to go out and open up to find your own images.

I visited the coast along Pacific Grove one Sunday morning a couple of weeks back. It was a cloudy day with a slight drizzle. I wanted to make photographs anyway. Usually, I look for landscapes with my wide angle lens, composing near-far images. Unfortunately, I was just beginning to use my Nikon D700, for which the required tripod L-plate was back-ordered. I was left with only one choice, my 70-200 telephoto (this lens is mounted on the tripod and the camera hangs off of it). It was an interesting constraint to work with. After walking around for a while, I figured out a spot from which I could see the surf hitting the rocks along the coast forming interesting patterns as the water washed over the rocks. I decided to photograph these patterns. I shot about 200 frames that morning, each one attempting to time the flow of the water just when interesting patterns occurred. Furthermore, I decided to make long exposures to capture the sense of movement. To achieve this, I set the ISO to 200 (the native ISO of my Nikon D700), the aperture to f22 (to get the longest shutter speed possible) and let the camera operate in aperture priority mode. The shutter speeds as determined by my camera ranged from 1/6 s to 1/13 s during my whole shoot. The 70-200mm f2.8 lens was mounted on my RRS BH-55 Ballhead on my Gitzo 1340 Tripod. Furthermore, I had my GPS-1A unit on to tag the GPS co-ordinates to my images and I was triggering using a cable release. Here are a few images from the session, post processed using Lightroom 5 and Google’s Silver Efex Pro 2.