Michael Frye has just posted a very useful guide to fall photography in Yosemite and the Sierra at his blog. Frye has a great deal of experience here, especially with The Valley itself – you may know him as the author of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite.
I was interested to read that he really loves November photography in The Valley – as it is also at the top of my list of great times for photography there. Right at the beginning of the month I love to shoot the fall colors – wonderful big leaf maples, red leaves of dogwood trees, and the brown to golden colors of the oaks and the dry meadows. I find the weather during this month to be some of the most conducive to photography… basically you can run into almost anything: the first real snows of the season, arriving and clearing storms ringing the Valley walls with clouds, beautiful golden light of autumn, waterfalls that may come back to life after autumn rain, and much more.