My main goal on my latest trip up to Yosemite was to make it to Eagle Peak and back, but after 20 minutes of climbing the first set of switchbacks, it quickly became apparent that I was in really, really bad shape and that Eagle Peak would not be happening. In fact, after hiking only a mile to Columbia Rock, I flopped down gasping for air and I really began to consider giving up on even making it to the top of the falls. Iit took every last shred of drive and determination for me to ultimately make it to the top and finally on to Yosemite Point.
To begin with, a perfectly healthy hiker could expect to make it up to the top of the falls in just under 3 hours. I took at least 5. It certainly didn't help my self confidence when 6 year old kids went bouncing past me as I was trying to breathe. I honestly think I stopped at LEAST every 100 yards all the way to the top. During the last 1/3 of the trail, the sound track from Lord Of The Rings kept playing in my head as I pictured Sam putting Frodo on his back as he climbed the last few feet of Mt. Doom. Only in this case, I was hauling a Nikon D4 with the 14-24 and 28-300, 2 liters of water and a tripod on my back instead of Frodo. The D4 and lenses will be the first to go if I ever try this again. I think just the camera and lenses were about 20 pounds.
Secondly, this particular hike cost me more than my knees, joints and blown out lungs. When I FINALLY made it to the top of Yosemite Point (Pictured to the right of the falls above) I began shooting happily away...and by the time I noticed my 28-300 lens roll past me, it was too late. Fortunately, there were no hikers below my as one of my favorite lenses plummeted over 2000 feet to the rocks below. But I'm sure they could hear my anguished screams from Oakhurst. (Think Darth Vader....."NNNNNOOOOOOOOOO....."}
As I limped my way back down the Upper Falls Trail in the dark, (I had a headlamp), the view of the valley under the full Super Moon was simply stunning. Even though it was already MUCH later than I had anticipated, I stopped to set up the tripod for this particular shot. The daytime effect here is obviously due to the long exposure, but even with the cloud cover, it was easily the brightest moon I've ever seen in the valley. On the way up, this particular scene had grabbed my eye, and I remember thinking that if I could get back down to this spot with the moon across the valley in the Southeast, the water in the falls should pick up the moonlight fairly well.
I finally limped my way back to my car around 2 AM. Forcing myself to keep going over the 9.4 miles round trip in what turned out to be a 12 hour odyssey was easily the most physically challenging thing I've ever done. I completely overestimated by ability and now I think I have a good understanding of how out of shape I really am. If I EVER try this again, I'll certainly have to hit the treadmill several weeks in advance, and limit my camera choice to a mirrorless with a couple of small lenses and a gorillapod.
The one good thing about losing the 28-300? My back pack was MUCH lighter on the way back down. :)
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Tags: Yosemite Falls Supermoon Super Moon Upper Falls Trail Half Dome Full Moon Long Exposure Nikon D4 Nikon 14-24 2.8 Yosemite National Park
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One of the reasons I made a mad dash up to Yosemite last April was to try to capture the wonderful side light on Bridal Veil that occurs in late Spring. I had seen a couple of amazing shots taken by Michael Frye, including the shot that is on the cover of his book "The Photographer's Guide To Yosemite" and I found that the sun is only in this position during a limited few weeks each year. When I arrived, the place was wall to wall with photographers and all of us were holding our breath hoping that the sun would come out and that we might even see a rainbow. The rainbow never materialized, but there was an audible cheer when the sun finally came out which was almost drowned out by the sound of hundreds of DSLR cameras clicking madly until the sun disappeared once again.
If this looks familiar, it is a wider view of a shot I posted of Bridal Veil a few months ago. It's a bit of a weird angle, but I like how the falls are dead center and how a finger of sunlight stretches across under El Capitan. This was my first trip to the park in late Spring, and I daresay, this won't be my last.
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William McIntosh Photography
Tags: Bridal Veil Falls Yosemite Yosemite National Park Sunset Clearing Storm Mist Tunnel View
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On the same evening as my last posted shot, I forced myself to turn around to see what was going on behind me. This particular spot is known for providing a nice reflection of the Three Brothers which in this case had just emerged from the clouds covered in snow.
I suppose you might not see as many shots of the Three Brothers in February as almost all of the lenses in Yosemite Valley at that time of year are trained upon the Horsetail Fall at sunset, which almost certainly was lit up just before I took this photo. But having turned my back on the crowd that particular year, I had wandered down to the Merced just out of curiosity to see what else the light was doing in Yosemite Valley on that particular night.
That day had been particularly disappointing as I had tried desperately to get to another location but had been turned away because I didn't have snowshoes and had come close to breaking a leg more than a few times as my boots slid down awkwardly between logs and between large boulders. It sucks when you have your heart set on a shot that you know would be amazing in those conditions...and you have to choose safety over what you know for a fact would be genuinely stupid behavior.
And then to follow my failure with the long hike back down to the valley floor...again without snow shoes in drifts that were at times up to my waist. It was definitely a very long and very cold hike. To stumble down to the river and to find light down there waiting for me....that just doesn't happen very often in my experience. I believe it was one of my college professors who first pointed out that the translation of "Merced" is "mercy." It was with a full heart that I got into the Prius for the long drive back to Orange County that night.
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Tags: Yosemite Yosemite National Park Sunset Merced River
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I have been wanting to make a trip up to Yosemite during Autumn ever since purchasing "The Four Seasons Of Yosemite" by Mark Boster a couple of years ago. I had also just recently seen a photo by Michael Frye showing the sun coming up much further to the South of Half Dome giving some wonderful side light to the trees along the Merced River and I knew that there would only be a few weeks out of the year when you could photograph the light hitting the changing leaves from that angle. As Veterans Day fell on a Monday this year, it opened up just enough of my Fall schedule to allow me to make a quick overnight trip up to the park. I set off at 6 AM last Saturday and arrived in the park just after noon.
The most amazing thing about this trip was....it was like visiting the park again for the very first time. The light and shadows were completely different than my last visit in June. In June, huge expanses of the park are completely lit by the sun for the entire day, but in November, the jagged peaks of the Cathedral Rocks and Sentinel Rock move continuously across the valley floor. In the Eastern part of the valley, only a small section will light up in the morning and then the sun is gone for the rest of the day. And the water levels were radically different. Yosemite Falls and stopped flowing completely and Bridal Veil was down to a thin wisp. The upside to this was that the river was almost impossibly still in several locations, creating an incredible mirror to the changing leaves of the Cottonwoods and Oaks along its banks.
After a quick hour or so of shooting in the valley, I drove up to the trailhead for Sentinel Dome as Glacier Point road was still open. I had never been up to the top of the Dome before and was completely blown away by the 360 degree panoramic view of the park and surrounding peaks.
After spending the night with some friends in Mariposa, I woke up at 4:30 AM and drove up to Glacier Point for the Sunrise. Again, I was amazed at the extreme change of angle of the sunrise. In June, the sun comes up almost directly behind Half Dome, but in November, the sunrise was FAR to the right, lighting Half Dome from behind. After shooting for an hour or so, I ran back to the car and drove back down the the valley floor. I was positive that I had waited too long to get my sunrise reflection shot of Half Dome, but as I parked by Yosemite Village and ran through the trees, it looked like I had shown up just in time. The trees along the Merced in that corner of Yosemite had just hit peak and the sun was still low enough to grab a bit of a starburst behind the larger firs and pines on the opposite bank.
Although my time in the park was brief, I shot almost non stop while I was there as there was still plenty of color up and down the Merced River. I came back with over 2000 images and I'll try to upload as many as I can over the next few weeks.
If you had asked me three years ago if I wanted to shoot Yosemite during Autumn, I would have passed. Brown weeds, low water levels, no waterfalls...why make the trip? After shooting up there this weekend, I could not have been more mistaken. Between the changing leaves, pristine reflections, and completely different light and shadows to work with, I would highly recommend making a trip up there between September and November to ANYONE who is a fan of Yosemite National Park.
NB: When I arrived at the location in the above shot, I was literally the only one shooting for a full 30 minutes. If not for Michael Frye's book , The Photographer's Guide To Yosemite I wouldn't have known about this location at all. This was not taken from Sentinel Bridge, but from just off the overflow parking area of Yosemite Village. If you are trying to find this spot, park as far East as you can in the lot, walk through the trees, and you're there.
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Tags: Yosemite Autumn Half Dome Merced River Changing Leaves Reflection Nikkor 14-24 2.8 HDR
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One of the upsides of moving all of my classes online during the pandemic this past year has been the new flexibility in my schedule. During the normal season at the college, many of my weekends would have been taken up with competitions, festivals and workshops, all of which, sadly, aren't happening this year. Instead, my weekends were going to be wide open this Winter and I was very much looking forward to taking a few trips back up to Yosemite to get some more shooting in during my favorite season in the park.
Unfortunately, this is easily one of the worst rainy seasons we've ever had in California. In my neighborhood, it's rained exactly three times since last May. Yosemite hasn't fared much better with the snow fall far below normal for this time of year. I'm hoping things will begin to change this weekend with a few snow showers in the forecast.
Since I haven't been able to make a trip up there so far this Winter, I have instead been sorting through some of my photos from my last Winter trip in 2019. On this particular evening, the park had received nearly three feet of snow on the valley floor and I had just done a face plant in a drift shortly before this photo was taken. As I recall, it was day in February when most of the other photographers in the valley were fighting over spots to shoot a fiery Horsetail Fall. Instead of joining the scrum, I headed down to the river in search of some solitude and stumbled on this view just as the sky lit up.
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Thank you so much for your views and comments! If you have specific questions or need to get in touch with me, please be sure to send me a message via flickr mail, or feel free to contact me via one of the following:
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Tags: Yosemite Winter Merced Snow Sunset El Capitan
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