I played with the curves to turn the blue snow into whiter color, and as a result of doing so, the reflection in the water glows even more beautifully.

Agreed, using levels was easier.

Well, I personally don't have an issue with the slight cast in this image. The snow in the foreground is close to white. I can say it is wonderful to see an image that is both beautiful and competent taken in The Range of Light in the winter.

picture of a well known place, Bruce.

Best wishes,

Thanks Edwin, the snow was off the trees in another 4 hours. Shows how fast this place can change.

what a morning, Bruce!

Nothing to criticize here IMO!

Had trouble setting the tripod with all the snow vaggelis. Need floats on the end.

Bruce, great composition, great reflection of cold snow and ice in the water, and then sun's warmer reflection just tops it off. You got something going on bottom right corner, needs a trim. Cheers.

Great photo Bruce. My favourite parts are the trees (I love the way you've captured them. They really are beautiful with the snow. Great job being up so early; although I'm sure it wasn't hard in a place like this.) and the reflections of the trees in the river. In particular I like the leaning tree and the other one that slopes the other way, which is best seen in the reflection.

My only critique is the light on El Cap, which is too overexposed for my liking. Perhaps that can be fixed.

Still, an outstanding image Bruce. Best wishes

Excellent image.

Congrats on your image Bruce - it really is wonderful. I was there last summer and would love to visit in winter sometime when it is possible to do so. I think this is probably the best time of the year to see it and do some photography with all that beautiful snow around, there are many distinctive possibilities as you show us here.

The one thing that holds me back from giving this a 10 is what looks to me like blown highlights on El Capitain on the right. I'm surprised that no one else has commented on this but I do so in the respectful spirit of a DHC which you have asked for. That aside, it is wonderful as has been pointed out above.

Best wishes for 09 - Eugene

I see now that Jeremy has made the same point as me between when I last read the comments and posted mine.

Bruce, you have really been creating some very good shots lately.

I love the composition. Perhaps it's a little tall, maybe not though as I'm wanting to see a little more on the sides but what was there may not have been desireable so in that case I would understand.

What really makes this is the reflection which is wonderful and adds the right color balance.

Two things keep me from giving this a HOF nomination. As has been said, the blown exposure on El Cap. I would reprocess another layer from RAW (I hope you shoot raw) to get right exposure for that area. Then I would hide that layer completely with a Layer Mask and slowly reveal it until it looks natural with more gold to match the reflection.

The other area is the branch in the upper right that has the clump of snow. There is some haloing going on around the branches here which unaturally lightend the sky in this area and also the snow here has too much of a cyan cast.

If these can be fixed, imho this should be in the HOF and would be a shame if not.

Excellent image! Composition is near perfect...

Only gripe is the washout on the mountain face, as noted by others.

Stunning work, Bruce! Thanks for sharing it!

you nailed it Bruce, one of my fav spots in the winter (could have worked on that bright spot on the captain a bit to make this even better!) ...nothing beats Yosemite in the snow!

Not sure how that corner grew Geno. JPEG artifact I guess.

Will have to work on this when I get back. I ran off to shoot in the smoke mountain national park. Back next weekend.

Just found this in the Last 600 images. What a beauty! I'd just about give this a 10 for the water reflection alone. I do have to agree with Jeff's comments, though. Is it possible to rework the parts he mentioned? (Maybe you did, and I've missed it since I was away.)