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.

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