Category Archives: Photographs: Yosemite

Photographs: Yosemite

Winter Grove, Yosemite Valley

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Winter Grove, Yosemite Valley
Winter Grove, Yosemite Valley. Yosemite National Park, California. February 16, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

I’m always looking for different views of the famous – and quite obvious – subjects in The Valley such as Yosemite Falls. Here I was intrigued by the shapes of leafless winter trees with snow in the foreground and the falls and cliffs in the background.

Normally, one would probably regard this as a poorly lit photo of the falls. However, at least in my view, the effect is to treat the typically-central waterfall as part of the background and instead draw attention to the forms of the trees, whose shapes echo the curves of the cliffs and the shadow line across the falls.

keywords: California, Landscape, National Park, Place, Travel, Valley, Winter, Yosemite, valley, usa, travel, scenic, landscape, snow, meadow, merced, river, trees, bare, tracks, footprints, cliff, mountains, rocks, fall, falls, blue sky, lost arrow, ice, sun, light, stock

Photographs: Yosemite

Horsetail Fall, Sunset (Black and White)

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Horsetail Fall, Sunset (Black and White). Yosemite Valley, California. February 16, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

Just because everyone else shoots this famous February event in color doesn’t mean I can’t shoot it in black and white. :-)

For those who may not recognize the subject immediately, a bit of background. Yosemite Valley contains not only the famous waterfalls (Yosemite Falls, Bridalveil Fall, Vernal and Nevada Fall) but also a huge number of smaller seasonal falls. A number of them have their sources in relatively low (compared to the Sierra crest) areas immediately surrounding the Valley, and therefore flow earlier in the season. Some even produce a good flow in the middle of winter when the conditions are right: recent precipitation and warmer temperatures.

Horsetail Fall is one of the best known and most striking of these falls, for a variety of reasons. It flows from near the top of massive El Capitan near the eastern part of the monolith. Its seasonal appearance makes it a fall that most visitors to the Valley never see. Its appearance is not a certainty, depending as it does on just the right combination of snowfall and warmth. And, most impressive, for a few weeks early each year a fortuitous placement of the fall relative to formations across the Valley to the West allows a beam of light from the setting sun to illuminate the fall just at sunset, often turning it and its spray wild colors.

keywords: horsetail, fall, waterfall, firefall, el capitan, february, winter, sunset, dusk, rocks, cliff, light, granite, yosemite, valley, national park, california, usa, landscape, scenic, travel, mountains, stock, black and white

Photographs: Yosemite

Rocks and Reflections, Merced River

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Rocks and Reflections, Merced River. Yosemite Valley, California. February 16, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

There are two stories behind this photograph – a photographic one and a “social” one.

The location was along a shaded portion of the Merced River in Yosemite Valley just a bit east of Bridalveil Fall, and the photograph was made in the morning on a very cold winter day. The light in this section of the canyon was rather cold and blue, but the light above the canyon was warm and golden from early sunlight hitting the Valley walls – hence the combination of the cold tones on the rocks and the very warm tones reflected in the water in this long exposure.

Among all of the places one might stop to make a photograph in Yosemite Valley, this did not appear to be the most likely and obvious spot. But this didn’t initially deter the folks looking for a “good picture” from pulling off the road here as soon as they saw me set up with a tripod and big lens. I can imagine the conversation in the car as they approached. “Hey, stop here. There’s a photographer. Let’s take a picture.” (Happens all the time – it is kind of fun in an odd way… ;-) I can only imagine their confusion when they got out and saw me pointing a really big lens toward a couple of rocks in the river, getting a shot that was not at all obvious from the road side. After they got back in their cars, the conversation might have continued: “What the heck! Here we are in Yosemite Valley and he was pointing his camera at a couple of rocks! What a nut!”

But I like the result. :-)

keywords: California, Landscape, National Park, Place, Season, Travel, Winter, valley, merced, river, reflections, swirls, rocks, boulders, current, california, usa, travel, scenic, landscape, water, stock