'In the Still of the Night' & Fall Colors in Yosemite – November 2019
I just returned from leading a private photography workshop for two of my dearest friends into the Eastern Sierras - the Mono Lake and June Lake areas, and then into Yosemite National Park. The fall colors in Yosemite Valley this year were wondrous and worth writing about, but my blog begins with an unusual photographic event we experienced in the Valley.
I decided I wanted to shoot sunset on the evening of November 3 at a location that can show the setting sun’s colors of El Capitan reflected in the Merced River. Sunset time was 5:15 PM that night, but we got to the location a little later than ideal but in time to get the image shown below. This was shot at 5:43 PM.
As you can see in this image, the gold in the Merced River is created by the setting sun’s color bouncing off of the face of El Capitan. To shoot this scene, there is essentially a small 5 foot space between two large Sequoia trees to set up in, and there was a young photographer already in the spot. This made it cramped as there were three of us all trying to squeeze into this tight space with a forth already in place.
I began a conversation with the young man and he told me of his prior experience of shooting the sunset here the previous evening, and how the ‘colors really begin to glow after the sun goes down’. I didn’t say much but began to think ‘how can this glow occur after the sun goes down and the reflections off of El Capitan winds down to no color whatsoever?’
He then mentioned that the glow on the Merced River would be much better down by the river and headed down there and my two friends followed. I stayed up top and shot this next image shown below after the sun had gone down below the horizon. This image was shot at 6:08 PM, almost an hour after the official sunset time.
Now, it was becoming patently clear to me there will be no ‘glow of color’ as you can see there is no color left on El Capitan to create a glow. Again, I decided not to say anything but wait until it became clearly obvious and say something profound and learned about ‘the glow is always caused by the color on El Capitan’, or something similar at the risk of sounding like Captain Obvious!
The next image below was shot at 6:29 PM, and it was so dark that we could see the lights of a climber on El Capitan settled in for the night in a hanging tent. And yes, there was an amazing ‘glow of color’ and it was a truly memorable and stunning sight to see and experience! We thanked the young man profusely and I was reminded, sometimes the wisest things you can say is nothing at all…
I thought that the title of this image, almost 75 minutes after sunset should be, ‘In The Still of the Night’ for obvious reasons.
California is not known for its Fall Colors. The East Coast of the USA is know for its brilliant Fall Colors and as a photographer, that is where you would go to capture the brilliance of Mother Nature in the Fall. Also, when I go to photograph Yosemite, especially with lots of clouds in the sky, or in the middle of a winters snow storm, I go to the stunning vistas, Tunnel View, Gates of the Valley, etc., that allows me to capture magnificent landscape images.
This time going into Yosemite one of my clients wanted to shoot more intimate images, and so I headed off into areas that I normally would not consider shooting in when ‘big skies’ are present. It also made a lot of sense to look for these more intimate images as we were given bald blue skies every day of this workshop.
Yosemite Fall Color
Here are some fall colors images from our visit to Yosemite that are my favorites and I hope it gives you a good idea of what the colors and light look liked in the Valley in early November this year.
The lighting is what drew my attention to these areas, which in turn highlights the colors.
Early morning in Cook’s Meadow.
The always delightful Fern Springs on the right, is a small spring near the beginning of the Yosemite Valley. The water is naturally filtered underground before the water comes up at the spring. I have seen many a people drink water at this spring, cold, pure, and refreshing indeed!
Sunrise at River Bend, and the fall color reflections in the Merced River on the left. Early morning lighting around the Pohono Bridge area with spectacular lighting on the fall colors.
And finally, a word on gratitude. As a photographer, as in life, it is important to place your attention on what you have and what you have been given. This is gratitude.
As a photographer weather always plays a pivotal role in the end results of your creative endeavors. However, you are never in control of this element. I look at weather simply as ‘You get what you are given’, and I am truly grateful for what comes my way. It is extremely important to me to be grateful and positive about the weather. It can always change. You have to adapt to the conditions, and you need to develop your local knowledge and technical skills to cope with and take advantage of what you are given.
As a photographer I like to travel with similar minded people. The two people above are two of my favorite such people to travel with. We met three years ago on a workshop in Patagonia, where we spent ten days together photographing in Argentina as well as Chile. We have traveled and photographed together in many places since then, and I am extremely grateful for the bond we have formed together, for their friendship, and their never ending sense of humor!
“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.” – Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha