Yo Semite Falls. 2630 ft.

This stereograph demonstrates Carleton Watkins's preoccupation with the foreground as a defining element of space in his landscape photographs. Although Yosemite Falls is the principal subject, the strongly vertical trees and the cabin with its diagonal striping of sunlight and shadow dominate the image. Nevertheless, the falls are perfectly framed between the trees just above the cabin, their distance evident in the severe shift in tone between the area of the foreground and the mountains. When viewed through the stereoscope viewer, which gives a three-dimensional effect, the contrast between the planes of focus becomes even more apparent.