Crowned

Canon EOS 6D | EF 70-200 f/4L IS @ 135mm | 1s, 1/4s | f/11 | ISO 100

Perhaps not the most original shot ever, this is a view of Bridalveil Fall in Yosemite National Park, taken from the oh so famous Tunnel View.

This was taken the day of a freak winter storm, I was hoping to catch some clouds or the clearing storm. Unfortunately, by the time I made it up the mountain and into the park, the skies had almost completely cleared and I was left with some rather ordinary light.

However, as the sun set, the remaining light lit up the side of the mountain, and just before the sun set, the light on the side of the mountain turned some great shades of orange, red, and pink.

I struggled with this image. This was a very very technically challenging scene to capture and process. The sky and illuminated portion of the mountain were significantly brighter than the lower portion and the valley below. This image is made up of two shots, one exposed for the valley and mountain, and the other for the illuminated portion of the mountain and the sky. I had originally tried to do this image with another pair of shots taken a minute later, but eventually went back to this pair due to more of the mountain being illuminated. After spending quite a bit of time tweaking the RAW conversion settings, it was a simple matter of bringing the two layers together and erasing out the portions I didn't need.

I may also be back with a few more images captured in a similar fashion. Enjoy!