Heavenly Light
Location: Yosemite National Park, Ca
Field Notes: Canon EOS 1, 35mm 1/10 sec @ f/22 ISO 50
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As my friend Pat and I drove up to the overly photographed “valley overlook” at tunnel view, I noticed that the summer storm of that day had started to clear. As it was breaking up, huge beams of light began to pass over the valley walls like flashlights from the heavens, leaving the rest of the valley dark as night. The beams of light would travel across the valley floor and up the valley walls, then close up just as a different beam would begin to illuminate on a different part of the valley. I knew that if the canopy of clouds remained, that with my exposure, only where the beam was hitting would appear in my image. I photographed a few images similar to this. The images were interesting but I wanted to show that it was Yosemite and not just a generic valley.
A few minutes later the sky behind El Capitan opened and revealed El Capitan in a dark sillouette. Now the light was perfect in the sky. I waited anxiously for one of the beams to illuminate an area on the valley floor or even better, the valley walls, to compliment the storm clouds in the sky. Just as I began to think, “what if Bridal Veil Falls were to light up?”, it did just that. For a short moment, my lucky stars aligned, Bridal Veil Falls lit up and this image was the product.
-Jeffrey Murray
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