• Edgar Allan Poe.

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We visited Yosemite National park almost a month after I moved to the West Coast. Looking back, I don’t know how I managed to wait that long. I still remember driving through the tunnel, and coming across the artist's point; it was almost surreal to see El Capitan and the Sentinals standing guard welcoming you to one of the most beautiful valleys on the planet.

In a way, photographing Yosemite is easy; the stunning beauty of the location helps to hide a lot of technical as well as creative flaws in your photography. It took a while, but slowly, the technical shortcomings started to raise their ugly head over the sheer beauty I was lucky enough to photograph. Scrapping with HDR was one of the most helpful steps towards my renewed push for meaningful photos. Learning about Luminosity masks helped as well. Another important lesson was the importance of shadows in an image.

This shot was taken during our first trip to Yosemite valley, bang in the middle of winter. Hardly anyone was there other than us, and California had an unusually dry winter, but Yosemite falls were still massive and an impressive sight to behold.

It was a misty and foggy sunrise at 2425 foot Yosemite Falls. Here, only the bottom 320 feet are visible but it is still an impressive waterfall when...

I owe this shot to Stephen. When we hiked up to Yosemite Falls on the first day of the workshop, I initially worked some compositions from a spot...

In the Columbia River Gorge, we're blessed with a few precious days a year where piles of ice and snow appear at the base of our waterfalls. Some...

This is from closer to the base of the falls, from the first day of the workshop. Brian took us up to a nice spot where we could get some good...

**Best Viewed Large ** www.flickr.com/photos/mattgranz/8512737515/sizes/o/in/pho...

Here's another image from my adventure with the Aperture...