All images © 2007-2013 Aaron Meyers
*** Explored #5 on 6/16/2019! *** I first photographed Yosemite National Park's "Fire Falls" in 2011. Although Galen Rowell might be the first person to photograph this, it was John Harrison's photo that inspired me to go see it myself. I was mesmerized when the clouds parted and the falls lit up as if someone had stuck a match under it. I went home and created a computer program to indicate exactly when it would happen each year and I've been using it to help me (and others) come see the falls ever since. Hordes of people visit Horsetail Falls in February when the setting sun causes the waterfall to glow but most don't know that the moon can do it as well. Willie and I returned a few months later, in April 2011, to photograph the moon lighting up the falls. I ran the computer program through the next 50 years and it became clear ... the moonlit Fire Falls is a rare event. First, the moon has to be in the right portion of the sky and it needs to be low in elevation to cast an orange light; the sun also has to be low enough in the horizon to not wash out the light of the moon. Next, there needs to be a cloudless night. Lastly, there needs to be an actual waterfall flowing from snow melting off the top of El Capitan. While the moon may be in the right part of the sky each year, most often this occurs in May and June when the waterfall has stopped flowing. With all the snow we've had this year I knew it was a possibility that things might line up properly. The May occurrence was ruined by a large snowstorm but it was also a blessing because it created just the extra bit of snow to cause a trickle of water to flow in Horsetail Falls in June. Most photographers take photos of the Fire Falls from 2 locations: either near the El Capitan Picnic grounds or from a spot along the riverbank off Southside Drive. Lately I've seen photos where people scrambled up the south wall of the valley, which provides a beautiful wider view of the scene. Although Sentinel Dome provides a perfect line-up, I've never seen a photo from here since the road to Sentinel is closed in the winter and the snowshoe up to it is grueling. This June occurrence was my chance to do something new! As far as I know, this photo is the first of the Fire Falls taken from Sentinel Dome! (if someone else beat me to it, I'd love to see it) I left work at 3pm and picked up Jeff, who had decided to join me at the last second. We arrived at Glacier Point at 10pm, napped for 2 hours and then hiked to the top of Sentinel Dome. We took photos for 4 hours, slept for another 2, and then drive home. I was back at work by 11am! In 2011 I had learned that photographing this scene is *hard*: focusing in the dark is difficult and with so little light, it pushes the boundaries of the camera and lens. We arrived early knowing we'd want time to setup and get things right. I also brought a lightweight chair and some beer with me so I could sit and enjoy the scene. Sure enough, just as I had predicted, the trickle of a falls lit up beautifully from 2:45am to 3:15am. The view from Sentinel Dome is spectacular and I'm so glad I could share it with someone because it was breathtaking (even with only a trickle of water). It's a much wider scene than the 2 popular locations which allowed me to make the photograph really feel like it was nighttime. From the Dome you can see into the Valley, with Cathedral Peaks on the left, El Capitan towards the middle, Horsetail Falls on the right and the town lights of Coulterville in the background. The warm night brought a haze into the air that created small light rays as the moon set in the sky. From up here we had a perfect view of the moon crossing from left to right as it sunk towards the horizon; we could see the hills it has to stay above in order for Horsetail to glow. The trees below Sentinel Dome created a perfect "frame" at the bottom of the photo. Although I wish there had been more water in the falls, Jeff and I will remember this night for the rest of our lives! Nikon D850 w/Nikkor 24-70mm: 50mm, f/3.5, 20 sec, ISO 800 Viewed best nice and large Find me on My Website | Facebook
Many people refer to this scene as "alpenglow", since you can see the color of the sun glowing off the mountain. I, instead, have decided that this particular phenomenon shall be renamed as "Cathedralglow". Named after the sun reflecting on Cathedral Peak in Yosemite National Park, Cathedralglow occurs when the sun is just below the horizon. Thunderstorms hovering over Cathedral Peak also pick up some of the color of the setting sun. One thing that I like to do with my each of my posts is to tell the story behind the photo and this one (I think) is a good one! This particular story involves the flu, long hikes, rock bouldering, cops, meteors, and more. I woke up on this particular morning with absolutely no energy. A large breakfast didn't help either and I started to get worried because I didn't know when we would eat again. As the day wore on I felt worse and worse. I started getting the chills. I had a fever. I had no appetite. I didn't want to move. It was only getting worse. I took a nap. Finally we stopped at the general store and I bought some DayQuill and a hamburger. I took another nap. When I woke up, all of a sudden … I had energy!!!! Just in time too -- it was 5 minutes before we were set to leave for Upper Cathedral Lake! Off we went! We left with plenty of time to hike the 4 miles, scout and wait for sunset. We didn't plan that I'd be sick, nor did we realized we would get lost and find ourselves climbing up hill more often than not but we arrived at Upper Cathedral Lake with plenty of time. When we arrived our jaws just dropped. Man is this place beautiful! After climbing around, walking over rocks, and doing a bit of bouldering we found what we wanted. Except … we were 100 feet too low! Above us loomed a huge rock-cliff. From down below, the lake was too small and squished; we needed to be on top to view the lake properly. Luckily Willie and I have both rock climbed at some point in our lives and we arrived at our spot with enough time for me to take another nap. As we waited for sunset some beautiful clouds rolled in and it started to rain behind Cathedral Peak. Man were we getting excited! As the sun dipped below the horizon the mountain peak just lit up with Cathedralglow! Wow were we in for a treat! As had been typical on this day, our emotions went up and down, up and down again; much to our dismay a number of thick, dark clouds rolled in and only a touch of pink color appeared in the clouds. That's when we turned around and saw the sky behind us was on fire! I had absolutely no energy to sprint down the cliff to get a better composition so we turned and just watched the wonderful sunset with our own eyes (and maybe a few shutter clicks too). It was a long hike down and thanks to another DayQuill I made it safely back to the car. This night was supposed to be the Perseid Meteor Shower maximum and we were eager to get to Mono Lake to photograph the meteors. A park ranger, on the other hand, was not so happy with our eagerness and decided to quiz us on why it was a better idea to slow down before eventually letting us go with just a warning. We spent a couple hours photographing meteors and then I finally made it back to bed where a long sleep found me feeling much better the next morning. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S: 22mm, f/16, 3 sec, ISO 100 Lee Filter Holder + HiTech 0.6 ND Grad 2 explore blend
One of the reasons why I love San Francisco during the holiday time is that it gets an extra special treat to its skyline: the four Embarcadero Center buildings outline themselves with over 17,000 lights, the Transamerica Building lights their “Beacon” and several other buildings don themselves with festive colors. Trying to get Sammi to get into photography, I brought her on a trip to the Eastern Sierras with Willie and I where she froze her tuchas off. Wanting to give her a better experience I invited her along for our visit into the San Francisco to photograph its skyline. It wasn’t until I offered to take her to the “Boxing Room” for dinner (Southern Creole) afterwards that she agreed! Willie, Alan, James, Sammi, and I met high upon this hill overlooking the city. James had arrived early and setup 5 different tripods all over the hill. Reining him in, we all setup and waited. In previous years the Transamerica Building turned its “Beacon” on at 5pm but lately it’s been turned on at 6pm, almost an hour after sunset. The 20-30 minutes after the sun goes down is called “Blue Hour”, where the sky takes a beautiful blue/purple tone. By 6pm the sky is dark, shadows creep in, and the photos become boring. With high hopes for an early turn on I looked at the Transamerica Building at 4:55pm and saw the light was on! Yes! During the 20 minutes or so of Blue Hour I took a number of compositions. The scene is difficult because the Bay Bridge and its light provide a nice line on the left, but the city beneath it is somewhat boring. The main part of the city lies on the right but I didn’t want to ignore the beautiful lights of the Bay Bridge. To our left were some vines and a building that blocked the view and got in the way of our scene. I decided that a panorama was necessary and I wanted to get to make the city buildings appear slightly closer, so I through on the 80-200mm lens and took an 8-photo panoramic. I took a 9th shot to make the star on top of the Transamerica building even larger. I ended with a 177 megapixel image that I then cropped in various ways. Wanting to highlight both the bridge, the city, and the lines from the road leading through the photo, I cropped the full 177 megapixel pano into this 110 megapixel photo with a 2.5:1 aspect ratio. Zoom in to see all the amazing detail of the city in all its holiday glory! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF 80mm, f/9.0, 6 seconds, ISO 200 8 shot panoramic, blended in Autopano Giga 9th shot at f/16 for the lighstar on The Beacon
![Mr. Sentinel and his Fiery Falls [Explored]](https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-CP9p5w3/0/XL/i-CP9p5w3-XL.jpg)
