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Western Redbud and Seasonal Waterfall

Posted by
Don Smith (California, United States) on 20 April 2010 in Landscape & Rural.

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One of the benefits of being a full-time photographer is the ability to travel on a moment's notice. Weather is such a key factor in my decision making that I plan my landscape outings, whenever possible, by following the projected forecast of the National Weather Service.

I had been making a concerted effort to shoot more spring-related images this year, and had wanted to return to the Merced River Canyon, west of Yosemite National Park, for the annual blooming of the redbud, which grows along the banks of the Merced River. Western redbud is a deciduous shrub (to small tree) that typically grows to no more than 14 feet in height. It is native to dry slopes, coast ranges and Sierra foothills (usually next to creeks and rivers) and can found growing up to 4500 feet elevation.

As a photographer, I am drawn to its vibrant color, which is actually more purple than red. Earlier this week we had a series of late-Pacific storms roll through central California and I waited to get on the clearing end (at least I had thought) so as to capture the redbud under overcast conditions. While descending into the Canyon along Highway 140, I spotted this seasonal waterfall and a vibrant redbud tree (standing about 10 feet tall and at peak boom) in the foreground. As I had hoped, the conditions were perfect with overcast skies, which served to knock down the contrast range one would experience on a sunny day. Metering the scene revealed I had a contrast range of just under 5-stops, and with the wet conditions, the color of the redbud "popped" off my sensor!

There was a slight breeze blowing, so I knew it was imperative to use a shutter of at least 1/30th or higher to ensure no movement of the branches. Photography is often-times about making trade-offs, and I knew that if I wanted 1/60th of a second, I would need to shoot at 400 ISO. Also, if I wanted to use f/8 as my aperture, I would need to bump the ISO to 800, thus introducing digital noise into the frame. Decisions, decisions! I finally decided that an aperture of f/5.6 with my 70-200mmL (set at 120mm) would allow enough depth-of-field to render the redbud in focus from front to back, and serve to throw my background out-of-focus just enough so as not to compete for attention, but still render the waterfall as recognizable. I also decided to stay with an ISO of 200 (and a shutter speed of 1/30th) and time the bobbing and weaving of the branches. When the breeze would subside, I fired, and this was the result.

I started photographing this scene with my neutral polarizing filter, then switched to a Singh-Ray Color Combo filter, which serves as both a color enhancer and warming polarizer. Overcast skies introduce an abundance of UV light to a scene and would have rendered this image a bit on the cool (blue) side. I spent the remainder of the day shooting redbud along the banks of the Merced River in a pounding rain, then drove into Yosemite Valley and shot snow scenes with a rushing Yosemite Falls. Two seasons in one - not a bad way to spend a spring afternoon!

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III 1/30 second F/5.6 ISO 200 120 mm

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