Anyone who has joined us on a workshop knows that if there is water, I am generally in it sooner or later. After all, I wasn’t given the moniker The Barefoot Contessa all those years ago for nothing!

True to form, I slipped out of my flip-flops and waded out, encouraging some of our group to join me and get a different perspective.

Where we were, the overhanging branches were a detriment, yet the scene was dramatic, or was going to be once the sun rose high enough to strike it.

Some of our group found places to get down really low — lying down even — to get a clear shot. I kept encouraging them to follow me into the river, but at first, there were no takers. OK, sure, that water was cool, but it was far from freezing.

I waded out carefully, avoiding the deep pockets, until …

I don’t know about you, but whenever we travel, we invariably photograph people, their houses, their kids, or perhaps their villages. Of course, they want a copy, but it’s not like the old days when we did Polaroids and could hand one out. Even in today’s world, especially in third-world countries, not everyone has e-mail. So, what to do?

Giving someone a photograph you did is one of the nicest thank you gifts possible if you are not using that image for …

As some of you have seen, there is so much to photograph in Yosemite National Park aside from the iconic Half Dome and El Capitan, Yosemite and Bridalveil Falls, and other well-known and oft-depicted scenes. Over the last couple of weeks or so, we’ve shown you skies, water, and fog, all of which deal with the Magic of Light that we talk about so much in our workshops.

There are also patterns and textures … so many varieties to capture the eye. I’ve always been fascinated by them, so it was no surprise that I found quite a few in the park.

I was intrigued by a feathery conifer whose moisture-laden tips so effectively set it off against …