El Capitan Reflection and Ice Pattern Merced River

 December of the year 2006 was one of the coldest periods of weather I ever remember in all of the years I lived in Yosemite, and I didn't mind one bit. Cold weather does very interesting things at the waters edge of the Merced River, and that was what I had in mind as I set out to photograph late one afternoon. I envisioned doing macro type close-ups of ice crystals and patterns at the rivers edge and my goals and mindset were definitely steered in that direction as I made the descent into Yosemite Valley from my modest cabin in Foresta. I specifically knew I was going to work the rivers edge under the looming and imposing mass of the Cathedral Rocks. This stretch of water is very shady most of the day in December and receives a lot of cold airflow. The ice patterns at the rivers edge can often be fascinatingly idiosyncratic and I knew I would find something interesting.

A lot of the time I have a sort of preconceived idea about what I am looking for, and this night was one of those times. Little did I know that something else was in the making, and what would happen was this convergence of cold, ground level detail, and the warm basking glow of sunset in the reflection of the mighty El Capitan.

I was working the ice pattern at the rivers edge. I was intent and utterly and completely focused on detail, nuance, pattern, and crystallization. Suddenly, and almost without warning, I became aware of the slight red-orange glow of the reflection of El Capitan. The color in the monolith began to swell with beautiful, vibrant, saturation until there was a beautiful, reflective representation of The Captain filling all the dead space in the water above the ice pattern at the rivers edge.

 The first images I made of this scene were nice, but were unsatisfactory to me because there was too much dead water space from the top edge of the ice crystallization and the up-side-down reflection of the top of El Capitan. As I lowered the camera position the reflection began to converge closer to the edge of the ice pattern thereby filling the dead space of the water and creating a much more whole and complete composition

 Nikon D200 Digital Camera ISO 100

 Nikon 17-35 2.8 lens at f16