ABSTRACT
Here was a way of dealing with an over-photographed subject, Upper Yosemite Falls in California’s Yosemite National Park. The weather was good-an October storm had just cleared the evening before, leaving the early morning crisp and clear, so a guaranteed early morning sunlight would fall across the southfacing falls. This was the perfect moment to shoot: The water and spray had just begun to catch the light; the sun was at the right height; and the view was inspiring for both tourists and photographers. Walking around, I knew that a foreground of some sort would help, and it would probably involve trees, and at this time of the morning probably also a silhouette, as the sun had not yet reached this part of the valley. I noticed these mainly horizontal branches, intersecting between two big conifers, and thought of a ladder. To keep it graphically simple, I did not want the sky, which meant cropping tightly with a telephoto lens. And for the effect, I needed everything sharp, which meant plenty of depth of field. I stopped down to ƒ/32, which meant 1/5 second and accepting some softness in the falling water.
