Merced Moment

For the fourth post in a row, I am sharing a photograph with water as the main subject or at least being a strong supporting element.

A little background about this photograph: It was late afternoon in May. I was in Yosemite, wandering along the Merced River. I was sitting on a soft bed of pine needles in the shade of a magnificent Ponderosa Pine tree. My vantage point offered up an unobstructed view of the river. The river was swiftly flowing left to right. Its swiftness was directly influenced by the current rate of snow melt in the surrounding areas.

I felt at ease as I sat quietly watching the river. No humans in sight. No man-made sounds could be heard. Just me and the awe-inspiring magic of the Valley. Peace!

As I watched the rivers spring dance, I was noticing the details of its current performance (and subconsciously looking for photographs.) The motion of the swift flowing water, small swells, gentle plunges, surprise little splashes, lines, patterns, textures and colors. All key components of what I look for when photographing water.

I mounted my camera on my tripod and zoomed into an area where I was seeing pretty little splashes that seemed to be reoccurring every few seconds, one after another. I decided that I wanted to sharply freeze the splash as opposed to smoothing it out. My goal was to create a photograph that captured a “Moment” of time along the Merced River on a beautiful spring afternoon.

Camera Settings: f16 1/13 sec ISO400

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