The Waters of the Merced River

Started early this morning on another hike, along the Merced River to Vernal Falls.  I think yesterday’s hike whipped me into shape for today, still hard, just not as bad!

Started at Happy Isles where the river enters the valley, a little more calm down here but made for a beautiful start of the day!

Closer to the falls, I ran across this little section of the river and was completely captivated by the shapes the water was making.  I spent the majority of today extracting small details out of the landscape.  Seems odd with such vistas here, but you can only take so many pictures of a big rock!

I’ve been used to getting right down in the water to make images of the moving water.  Kinda hard when the water’s moving fast enough to just sweep you away.  What I’ve found is a new perspective by shooting from above.  This one was taken from one of the bridges crossing the river.  I’m really liking the the view from above!

Really out of the box for me on this one, and it’s one of my favorites.  At the base of Vernal Falls there was still small amounts of ice clinging to the rock face.  That’s what you’re seeing on the far right of the image.  Zooming in on the water along with the interesting diagonal shapes of the cliff are what makes this interesting for me.  Finishing it in black and white gives it an air of mystery.

So where did I end up??  Vernal Falls.  I actually hiked all the way to the top, it’s hard to see in this image but there is a rail on the right side of the falls and you can get right up to the edge where the water breaks over.

That’s my last day in Yosemite, will have to return another time in another season, maybe more than one.  I think winter would be especially beautiful.  I have many more images, so stick around over the next couple weeks!

click to see the images larger!