Half Dome "V"
Location: Yosemite Valley, Ca
Field Notes: Canon EOS 1, 17mm 1/13 sec @ f/22 ISO 100
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When 3 of my buddies asked me to pick them up from their overnighter from Tuolumne Meadows to Yosemite Valley, I agreed, as I would never turn down an opportunity to go into Yosemite. I left where I was living at the time, right outside the park, around 1:00pm to scout out a spot to shoot the evening light. It wasn’t much of a photo day as there had been no storm in days, and the sky was clear as can be. I parked in the “house keeping” parking lot and went for a walk. I challenged myself to find an interesting image on such a dull evening. I remembered back to similar evening on Glacier Point when I noticed that during the summer months, the sun lines up perfectly so that half dome is the last spot in the valley that the sun touches. I set out to use this light to create something different and new. Originally, I had planned to set up in a large meadow near the Awhnee Hotel, but because I had given myself so much time to scout, I set out to find somewhere else, where the foreground compliments half dome. I had remembered a spot that I had crossed over hundreds of times, but never looked twice during the harsh afternoon light. When I got there I noticed the trees formed a “V” with Half Dome sitting directly at the bottom. Just as I sat down to wait for the sun to fall, some clouds began to move down Tenaya Canyon towards the valley. “Perfect!” I thought to myself, “Now if only the light will cooperate”. As the sun began to set, I saw more and more photographers gathering around, all anticipating and hoping for a good sunset.
I think that is exactly what I got. The sun fell out of sight to people on the Valley floor and Half Dome began to light up. The white granite transformed into an unearthly orange that I had only seen during clearing storms. I fired off about 5 shots and then just as quickly as Half Dome lit up, the light disappeared and half dome turned grey and flat. As I walked away in a crowd of photographers only had shot less than 10 photos, I talked to a man who was saying how the scene was beautiful, but its too bad that everyone’s images are going to look the same. I just smiled at him and laughed. I wish I could show him how mine turned out.
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