On Wednesday Claudia and I returned to the San Joaquin Valley with our friend Kirk. We had another great day, capped by watching more than 10,000 Ross’ geese land in a pond right in front of us, silhouetted against the dusk sky. Claudia and I came back the next morning and watched them all fly out, the white birds reflected in the still water.
Video is a great medium for showing the incredible sights and sounds of these birds, and Claudia did an amazing job of capturing these events with our little Flip Mino video camera. At the end of each video you’ll also see some stills that I made.
It’s here—almost. The window of best light on Horsetail Fall will begin around February 12th and continue until approximately February 22nd this year. The big questions is how much water will be in the fall.
Horsetail Fall is fed by snow melting from a small area on top of El Capitan. While there was plenty of snow up there in December, we’ve had only one small storm since January 2nd, and much of that early-winter snowpack has disappeared. Horsetail has a decent flow right now, indicating that there’s still some snow on top of El Cap, and I think there will be enough to last through the window of best light—but it might be a close call. If the snowpack holds up, and the warm, dry weather continues, it could be a banner year for Horsetail Fall photographs, with many clear sunsets.
For more details about photographing Horsetail Fall, see this article on my web site, or previous blog posts here and here. And check out the time-lapse video of Horsetail that Steve Bumgardner just posted.
Meanwhile, Yosemite Falls is still going strong, with exceptionally high flow for February, and excellent early-morning light. That light starts to shift soon—by the end of the month it’s not nearly as good. But for the next week or so the sun will strike the upper fall early, creating golden light on the water, and the chance to see rainbows from the eastern end of Cook’s Meadow.
Just to make things more interesting, there will be a full moon the night of February 17th, right in the middle of the Horsetail window. In Yosemite Valley the best opportunities for moonrise photos occur one to three days before the actual full moon date. I recommend using The Photographer’s Ephemeris to figure out the the specifics, but it looks like the moon might be visible near Half Dome at sunset on the 15th from the eastern end of the valley (Cook’s Meadow and the Ahwahnee Meadow). The evening of the 16th you might be able to see a moonrise from Tunnel View. So if you’re in Yosemite one of those days you’ll have to choose between trying to photograph Horsetail Fall or the moonrise.
If you get any good photographs of Horsetail, a moonrise, or anything else in the park, I’d love to see them, so please feel free to post links in the comments. Good luck!
Ross’ geese landing, Merced National Wildlife Refuge
As most of you probably know, last week I posted this image of Ross’ geese from Merced National Wildlife Refuge, and held a little contest to see who could guess the number of geese—in the air—in the photograph. The response was great; 83 people submitted estimates. The guesses covered a wide range, from 300 to 4000. Thanks to all of you who joined in—this has been a lot of fun!
So here’s the actual number of geese, in the air, that I counted: (drumroll please) 1585. The closest guess was 1600, made by Jack Kirchert. Congratulations Jack! Honorable mentions go to Jim Davies, 1560; James Williams, 1545; and Pam, 1543. All these people came within 42 of the actual number. The next closest estimate was 1505, 80 geese away from my count.
Since four people came so close, I’m going to award four prizes: all the people I just mentioned will get their choice of either my Digital Landscape Photography book or one of my three Yosemite posters. In addition, the Grand Prize winner, Jack Kirchert, will receive an 8×10 matted print of this photograph with a congratulatory message and my signature.
Most of the guesses turned out to be too low. The actual count surprised me as well. When I first looked at the image, I thought there might be 600 to 800 birds in the air. But when I started actually counting them (I know, too much time on my hands…) it quickly became apparent that there were a lot more geese than I thought. As I mentioned earlier, this was part of a large flock that arrived to join the birds already on the ground. This photograph shows only a portion of this group of new arrivals, certainly less than half, so this new group might have had 4000 to 5000 birds, joining perhaps another 5000 or more on the ground. An amazing number, and a wonderful sight. (Here’s a larger view of this photograph.)
So thanks again to all who participated, and congratulations to the winners!
Understanding how to read a histogram is the best way to judge exposure in high-contrast scenes like this.
With film, exposure always involves some guesswork—you can never be sure you made the correct exposure until you develop the film. But with digital cameras you can tell immediately whether the right amount of light reached the sensor by looking at a histogram. This ability to instantly evaluate exposure is a game changer—the single biggest advantage of digital photography over film.
But many photographers are still guessing about exposure because they’re unable to decipher the histogram’s cryptic messages. Instead they judge exposure by how bright the image looks on their camera’s LCD screen. But while those little screens are extremely useful for many things, evaluating exposure isn’t one of them. There are too many variables: screen quality (usually bad), the LCD brightness setting in the camera, and the amount of ambient light.
Ross’ geese landing, Merced National Wildlife Refuge
Claudia and I had such a great time visiting Merced National Wildlife Refuge last Monday we went back two more times last week. On Wednesday we found a large flock of geese—mostly Ross’ geese—feeding in a field near the tour road. Small groups flew in, joining the group, then a huge flock arrived from the north. This photograph shows only part of this new group landing.
When watching flocks of snow or Ross’ geese like this, it’s always hard to estimate the numbers. You know you’re looking at a lot of birds, but how many? So out of curiosity I counted the number of geese in the air in this photograph. Yes, really, I counted them. I took the image into Photoshop, zoomed in, and marked little dots on each bird to make sure I didn’t miss any or count them twice.
So I thought it might be fun to see if you, my readers, could guess how many birds are in the air in this photograph. And just to add a little incentive, the person who’s estimate comes closest to my count will win a free copy of my book Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters. Or, if you already have a copy, you can choose one of my three posters (you can view them here).
To make your guess and enter the contest, go to my blog home, where you can read the rules, see a larger image, and post your guess in the comments.
This week’s photograph was made by Grant Kaye at Badwater in Death Valley National Park, California. The water in this place may be bad to drink, but it’s good for photography. It’s always interesting to see water in the desert, and this spot often has great reflections, especially with clouds at sunrise or sunset, like the ones Grant captured in this image. It’s easy to see why Badwater attracts lenses.
Composition
With reflection images, horizon placement is a key decision. It’s usually better to avoid putting the horizon across the middle of the frame, as this cuts the photograph in half, and often creates the feeling of two different photographs stuck together. (I pointed out this problem in another recent critique.)
But there are exceptions to any rule. With reflections, putting the horizon in the middle emphasizes the symmetry between the elements above the horizon and their reflections below, and can be an effective way of expressing calm and serenity, or simply creating repetition and a unified composition. Placing the horizon above or below the center can also work: pointing the camera down emphasizes the reflection; pointing the camera up emphasizes the actual objects above the water.
In this photograph Grant chose put the horizon above center and highlight the foreground and the reflection. I often like this approach, as reflections have richer color than the real objects they’re reflecting. Here this arrangement also accentuates the converging lines of the clouds—they all seem to point to a spot behind the peaks in the center of the image. Overall the composition is simple and direct, with a strong radiating design.
Ross’ geese taking flight yesterday at Merced National Wildlife Refuge
I’ve seen many beautiful natural phenomena in my life: lightning storms, lunar rainbows, Horsetail Fall turning into a ribbon of orange water at sunset. But the most impressive and magical thing I’ve witnessed might be the sound and movement of large flocks of snow geese. The roar and synchronized motion of 10,000 glittering white birds taking flight is unforgettable.
The moon rising between El Capitan and Cathedral Rocks from Valley View
Clear skies have allowed my workshop students and me to photograph the rising moon on three successive days: over Half Dome on Sunday, between El Capitan and Cathedral Rocks on Monday, and between Half Dome and El Capitan from Tunnel View yesterday. Naturally the timing for this workshop (Photoshop and Digital Printing, with The Ansel Adams Gallery) was planned to take advantage of these lunar opportunities, but you never know what kind of weather you’ll get, so we’ve been lucky.
Where November and December were exceptionally wet, January has been dry so far. Yosemite photographers often hope for precipitation and the opportunity to photograph a clearing storm, but every set of conditions creates unique opportunities. The clear, warm weather is melting the abundant snow pack and producing an exceptionally high flow in Yosemite Falls. It looks more like March than January. The light, however, is still at its winter angles, striking the falls shortly after sunrise—much better than in March, when the sun doesn’t reach the waterfall until it’s high in the sky.
With more clear, warm weather in the forecast, the water flow should stay high or even increase, and we could have great opportunities to photograph Yosemite Falls for several weeks.
If you had a chance to photograph the rising moon the last few days, or the high water in Yosemite Falls this winter, I’d love to see the images, so please post a link in the comments.
This week’s photograph was made by Chris Alexander in Glacier National Park, Montana. That’s the second time recently that I’ve critiqued a photo from this park. Obviously—and no surprise to anyone who’s been there—a beautiful place!
This composition works very well. The bottom two-thirds of the photograph has sweeping, repeating, U-shaped curves that help tie everything together and frame the background peaks. The lake and mountains provide focal points: my eyes work in a triangle around the frame, going from the lake to the prominent peak on the right, over to the peaks on the left, then back to the lake, sometimes detouring around the lower basin to look at the snow patches and trail. The overall design is simple and strong.
If I could quibble with something, it would be the bright spots along the edges that tend to draw my eyes out of the frame, including the snow patch in the lower-left corner, another snow patch near the upper-right corner, and of course the sky.
Jim Goldstein posted his Best Photos of 2010 Blog Project today, with the top images of 2010 from 162 photographers, including me of course. It’s worth spending some time looking through these photographs, as there’s a lot of great work.
I’ve been using Lightroom since Adobe released the beta version in 2006. Over the years I’ve learned many shortcuts, and in this video I share some of my favorite tips – things I use all the time to streamline my workflow:
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