One of my photographs was published in the reader’s gallery of Landscape Photography Magazine. The image depicts one of the waterfalls in Yosemite National Park, as seen from a walkway along Cook’s Meadow.
I took this shot in late April of 2013, during the final stop in my first trip to Yosemite. Late April is an awesome time to visit the park if you want to see the waterfalls in action, as they derive much of their water from snow melt.
As I said in the submission’s description, I used a 10 stop neutral density filter, along with a 3 stop grad filter…the ND filter slowed down the shot enough to soften the waterfall, as well as helping to smooth out reflection of the falls in the steam in the foreground. The 3 stop grad somewhat balanced the exposure of the reflection in the foreground with the horizon and skyline in the upper third of the photograph. Without the 3 stop grad I was afraid the skyline and sun-baked rock face would have been a little blown out, and/or the reflection in the foreground would have been unacceptably dark.
In this shot I used the Zeiss Distagon T* f/2.8 21mm at f/22, hitched to a Nikon D800E. The small aperture helped to bring as much of the photograph into acceptable focus as possible. My focus point was along the grassy stream bed, about a third of the way into the middle of the photograph.
I had to rush a bit to get the shot, as I was taking the long drive back to Vegas to catch a flight immediately following this final stop. This spot is a long 3 iron (I normally don’t like golf analogies, but it fits here) from the Visitor’s Center of the park. If you ever travel to Yosemite, seeing these falls is about as easy as it gets…you can’t really miss it upon entering the park.
Here’s the photograph:
Jeb Buchman Photography 