26.3. How Can I Get the Best Shot?

Depending on whether you want to hike or drive, you have two opportunities to get great shots. Each view offers something different and each requires different lenses. Besides your lens choice, having the right filters, using a tripod, and selecting the correct shutter speed will greatly enhance your ability to make great images of Vernal Fall.

26.3.1. Equipment

The equipment needed to photograph Vernal Fall differs greatly depending on which viewpoint you choose. The Mist Trail requires wide-angle lenses and Washburn Point requires longer telephoto lenses. Besides lenses, you can use some filters to help you improve the images of Vernal Fall. And of course a tripod and cable release improve every image.

26.3.1.1. Lenses

The lens you choose to photograph the falls depends on which shooting location you choose — the Mist Trail or Washburn Point.

26.3.1.1.1. Mist Trail

For a captivating shot of Vernal Fall from the Mist Trail footbridge, use a wide-angle lens in the 14-35mm range. With this lens choice, you can include the rushing waters of the Merced River in the foreground of your image while diminishing the waterfall in the background. A normal to short telephoto lens in the 50-85mm range makes the waterfall appear larger and shows off more of the force of the fall. If you use a longer lens (100-400mm), you can fill the frame with the rushing waters of the fall to show its enormous power. From this one location, you can get very different looking images by varying the focal length of your lenses. Just be careful to keep the mist out of your camera when changing lenses here. I recommend bringing a large plastic bag so that you can change the lenses in the bag.

26.3.1.1.2. Washburn Point

The best lenses to use from Washburn Point are medium and longer telephoto lenses. An 80-200mm or 100-400mm lens allows you to isolate the waterfall within the narrow canyon. Use a longer lens to create a more dramatic image of the fall filling the frame.

26.3.1.2. Filters

You can use several filters when photographing Vernal Fall that can improve your image and protect your gear.

• UV or skylight filter. Using a UV or skylight filter protects your lens from the spray of the waterfall if you are on the Mist Trail. The spray can be felt all the way to the footbridge on a spring day! And if you continue the hike up the Mist Trail to see the fall from multiple angles, you will definitely want some protection for your lens — the Mist Trail does live up to its name!

• Polarizing filter. A polarizing filter can help reduce the glare off the rocks and boulders in the foreground and saturate the colors. If you are fortunate enough to be at Vernal Fall when the light is right for casting a rainbow, you will want to be judicious with the polarizer so that you do not eliminate the rainbow! The polarizing filter also reduces the light entering the camera and therefore can be used to slow down your shutter speeds if you want to blur your water. Depending on how far you rotate the filter, it can block up to 2 stops of light.

• Neutral density filter. The neutral density filter can also reduce the amount of light entering the camera as well as slow the shutter speeds. If you desire to use this filter when photographing water, I recommend that you use a 2or 3-stop filter, which gives the water a milky effect.

• Graduated neutral density filter. A graduated neutral density filter is dark at the top and tapers to clear at the bottom. The filter reduces the light coming into the camera at the end with the density and has no effect on the exposure at the clear end. If the sky is much brighter than the foreground, you can use this filter to even out the lighting ratios between the bright sky and the darker foreground. Because the filter is dark at one end and clear at the other, you place the dark end over the sky or waterfall to reduce the brightness of that area and even out the light so that the bright sky or waterfall and the darker foreground can both be exposed properly in one exposure.

26.3.1.3. Extras

Using a tripod always improves the quality of your images. If you want to slow down the shutter speed to create the milky, flowing water effect, you need a tripod. When using a tripod, use an electronic cable release to activate the shutter so that you do not shake the camera. And I always recommend a bubble level to keep the camera level.

A plastic bag or shower cap is perfect to place over your camera to prevent it from getting wet from the falls spray. If you plan to photograph the fall at the height of spring runoff, take along a large plastic bag or rain cover for protecting your camera bag.

Bring along a towel so that you can quickly blot off any water that falls on your equipment. If you have a lens shade or lens hood, use it to help protect your lens from the spray.

26.3.2. Camera settings

If you are going for the milky flowing water effect, you want to shoot with shutter speeds in the 1/4-second to 1-second range. The reason that you don't need to go longer is that the water is so close and moving so fast that these shutter speeds allow you to get the motion you desire. If you want to stop the waterfall and have it appear about how it looks to your eyes, a shutter speed of 1/60 to 1/125 second is ideal. If you want to freeze the motion of the water, then a shutter speed of 1/500 second and faster works well. The closer you get to the falls, the faster the shutter speed needs to be. Next to the fall, at peak runoff, shutter speeds of 1/250 and 1/500 second actually give you an image close to what your eyes see and will not be totally freezing the action of the water.

• ISO. Using the native ISO (the ISO recommended by your camera manufacturer) always gives you the best image. If you are using a tripod, using this native ISO is not difficult. If you are handholding the camera, you may want to boost the ISO to 400 or higher so that you can set the lens to a smaller aperture and still have a fast enough shutter speed to be steady.

• Exposure mode. If setting the shutter speed, as previously mentioned, is your major concern in your image, then I recommend using the Shutter Priority mode. If you are more concerned with depth of field, then I recommend Aperture Priority mode.

• Exposure compensation. If the waterfall is dominating your image, then the camera will try to expose the water as middle gray, so you need to use exposure compensation and add between 1 and 1 1/2 stops of light.

• White balance. Daylight white balance should work well for most images taken in this area. If you are in the canyon and it gets shady, you may notice some excess blue light. If the granite, the water, or the shadow areas look too blue, change your white balance setting to Shade or Cloudy and see if that looks better.

26.3.3. Exposure

Knowing when to be at a location and working with the weather are key elements in capturing a great landscape image.

26.3.3.1. Ideal time to shoot

Whether shooting from Mist Trail or Washburn Point, you want to photograph Vernal Fall when the sun is high enough to clear the east rim of the canyon, lighting up the falls, and before it gets low enough in the western sky to be blocked by the cliffs. This is typically a midday to late afternoon shot.

When there is sufficient water in the waterfall, a rainbow can be seen from Mist Trail in the late afternoon sun, as seen in figure 26.3.

Figure 26.3. In late afternoon, with sufficient water flow, you see a rainbow in the waterfall! Taken at ISO 100, f/22, 1/30 second with a 17mm lens.

26.3.4. Working around the weather

From the Mist Trail, Vernal Fall can be photographed in any weather as long as you are prepared! The ideal time to photograph is midday on a sunny day, but if it is overcast, you can still go at any time and not have to worry about the harsh shadows. If you choose to work in the rain or snow, then you must prepare yourself for a very slippery trail and hazardous conditions.

If you aren't an experienced hiker or just don't feel confident hiking in inclement weather conditions, avoiding this trail is probably best.

From Washburn Point, inclement weather can either add drama to the scene or obscure your view of the falls. I recommend waiting and watching because I have seen the clouds part and frame the waterfalls, creating very dramatic photographic opportunities.

26.3.4.1. Low-light and night options

Vernal Fall is one of the waterfalls in Yosemite National Park that can produce a moonbow — a rainbow created by the moonlight that appears white to your eyes but photographs with more color — during the nights of a full moon and full water flow.

If you are interested in photographing this phenomenon, it typically happens only once or twice a year. Plan a trip during the months of May or June when moonbows can most often occur.

If you hike to Vernal Fall via the Mist Trail at night or in the late evening, be prepared with at least two flashlights so that you have a backup source of light. The trail is fairly steep, narrow, and windy in sections, so once again you must have confidence in your hiking abilities. But the rewards can be great, as the moonbow can be quite strong and there are a lot fewer people here to see it than there will be at Lower Yosemite Falls, which also has a moonbow.

The falls are visible from Washburn Point, but this location is not particularly good for photographing Vernal Fall at night.

26.3.4.2. Getting creative

Get creative with your Vernal Fall photographs by trying different vantage points along the trail. There are sections of the trail with wildflowers just off to the side, and you can get low and use the wildflowers as a foreground element with the waterfall in the background (see figure 26.4). This location is always windy, so you want to use a fairly fast shutter speed to stop the motion of the flowers! But you also need a fairly small aperture to get the depth of field, as you need to have both the flowers and waterfall in focus. To ensure a fast shutter speed and a small aperture, you need to raise the ISO setting on your camera. If you go close to the fall with a wide-angle lens, you can emphasize the height and width of the waterfall; just be sure to try to keep your camera dry! You can do something different by following the Mist Trail to the top of the waterfall and photographing the water leaping over the edge of the cliff. Just be careful up there!

Figure 26.4. To add interest to your images, find some wildflowers to use as a foreground element. Taken at ISO 100, f/22, 1/8 second with a 17mm lens.