Photographing Yosemite: Digital Field Guide

9.3. How Can I Get the Best Shot?

If you come to Happy Isles when the light is even, use your tripod, and take the time to investigate the area; you will get the best results in this location.

9.3.1. Equipment

Happy Isles offers many opportunities for nice images, whether you have a standard lens or a wide variety of lenses. Take your time to look for the best compositions. Using your tripod allows you to get flowing water images and really helps make your images more interesting by showing motion.

9.3.1.1. Lenses

Because you can photograph everything from the broad landscape to the intimate details of the creeks and rocks, this is one place where you can use your whole arsenal of lenses. To photograph the broad scene of the rivers and creeks, your wide-angle lenses from 14-35mm work well. To get in close to the rivulet flowing over smooth granite rocks, your short telephotos from 85-200mm will work well from the bridges and riverbanks (see figure 9.1). If you want to photograph the birdlife, such as Steller's Jays, flickers, and Brewer's Blackbirds, then your 200-400mm lenses will come in handy.

Figure 9.1. An intimate detail of the Merced River cascading over a series of rocks from Happy Isles on a summer evening. Taken at ISO 100, f/16, 2 seconds with a 24-105mm zoom lens at 35mm.

9.3.1.2. Filters

Depending on time of year, you may want to slow the water down to get nice ...