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Night's Tail Horsetail Falls, Fire Falls, via Moonlight Yosemite National Park, CA Many photographers know about Horsetail Falls in Yosemite and that every February it lights up into a "Fire Falls." In fact, I photographed this exact event in February of this year and it was spectacular. Many photographers, however, do not know that the same phenomenon occurs via moonlight on some rare occasions! On Saturday, April 16th 2011 I woke up at 3am and headed over to the Picnic Grounds at Yosemite National Park. When I arrived the moon was really lighting up the falls but the angle wasn't quite right to turn the falls red. After a couple minutes of setting up and figuring out my camera settings all of a sudden the photos started turning orange! It lasted for about 10 minutes before the falls were completely dark. Note that to the human eye the falls appeared white but to the camera it appeared red! The human eye has 2 photo-receptors: rods and cones. Cones are really good at detail and color but require a lot of light. They don't work so well in low light (night). Rods on the other hand, are really good at low light but they can't detect color. So at night, in this scene, our eye only saw the brightness of the falls but the camera sensor saw the beautiful color! There is NO saturation change to this. The only thing I did after taking this photo was a small white balance adjustment, some sharpening, and some noise reduction! I'd also like to note the difficulties in taking this photo. It was nearly pitch black and the camera cannot focus at all. Additionally, using LiveMode, as I did during the sunset Fire Falls, doesn't work either since the LiveMode displayed a completely black view. I had to set the camera to focus at infinity, took a photo, and then tweaked the focus. I continued this until I got a shot that was in focus. Additionally, since there's so little light I had to bump the ISO wayyyyyy up. Additionally, I had to turn "Long Exposure Noise Reduction" and "High ISO Noise Reduction" off or I would have missed out on taking photos of the event. I did the noise reduction later on in Photoshop. Lastly, I had to keep the shutter short just to try to keep the star trails to a minimum. Nikon D300s w/Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR: 112mm, f/4.8, 30 sec, ISO 2000, Tripod
A couple weeks ago I decided it was time to order a Lee Filter holder and a set of HiTek filters as well. They finally all arrived on Friday and my friend and I drove down to Davenport, CA to take photos at Hole-in-the-Wall beach. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and there were a ton of students at the beach as well. We arrived at low tide, walked through the hole in the rocks (aka the Hole in the Wall), skirted along on the sand, and went over to the other side of the beach. We found a great place to take photos (see the photos to the right a couple), but decided to walk around the other side of the beach as well. The tide came in and made for some neat waves crashing against the rocks. At the end of this photo-shoot we had to walk back through the Hole in the Wall and the tide had come in. I ended up misjudging things and got swept into the ocean with my camera bag on my back and all my electronics in my pockets/backpack. I got tossed against the rocks for a while and managed to swim my way back to shore. I could have easily died for my stupidity! Surprisingly my LowerPro camera bag stayed almost completely dry! My Nikon D80, which was at the bottom of the bag, doesn't work but everything else stayed completely dry (including my D300s)! Both my work/personal phones were dead but Apple replaced my iPhone4 for free (thank you Apple)!!!! Nikon D300s w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S: 35mm, f/10, 1/15 sec, ISO 250, Tripod Hitech 0.9 soft ND grad filter, Hitech 0.6 soft ND grad filter, and Lee FK Filter holder
Destroyer of the One Ring Horsetail Falls, Fire Falls Yosemite National Park, CA For two weeks every year Horsetail Falls, in Yosemite National Park, becomes one of the most sought after spots to photograph. Made famous by Galen Rowell in his "Natural Firefall photograph" (Ansel Adams did document this photograph but as a black-and-white landscape photo), many photographers (including myself) try to duplicate his effort. Situated on the northern side of the valley, and at the extreme eastern end of the El Capitan monolith wall, the falls catch the last rays of the setting sun for only about one month of the year.  At midwinter, the sun sets below the southwestern rim.  As the year progresses, the sun sets a bit further north along the western horizon.  By the end of January, if you are standing at the El Capitan picnic area parking lot, you can see the sun setting in the Gunsight, the V between Cathedral rocks on the eastern side of Bridal Veil Falls.  By the first few days of February, it sets to the right of the lowest Cathedral rock.  Provided the sky is clear, the sunlight illuminates the entire El Capitan North America wall, and if you are in a position east of the falls, it backlights the water, making it glow with amazing colors In mid-to-late February each year, when the atmospheric conditions as well as the angle of the sun, hit Horsetail Falls just right, the entire falls look as if they are *ON FIRE*! In order for the falls to burn you need sunlight (the clouds can't be blocking the setting sun), and water (which occurs when the snowpack above El Capitan is melting). There are 3 places that you can easily view Horsetail Falls. The first, and most popular, is the El Capitan picnic area (on Northside Drive). This provides the closest view, but it's at further east and a harsher angle and some people didn't see the falls light up from this spot while the other locations did. The two other locations are along Southside Drive, with the best spot being where we snapped away (GPS coordinates 37.72783,-119.609). We got to Yosemite at about noon on Sunday, hoping that the incoming storm would keep the clouds away and light up the falls for us. We scoped out all 3 locations and decided that the Southside Dr location was best. We arrived back there at 2:30pm, which was just in time, because photographers were starting to line up and we had to rush to claim a good spot. We made friends with the photographers around us -- which was a good thing because we had 3 hours to kill while the sun set. Peak "Firefalling" was supposed to start at 5:22pm but clouds had settled in and we started to get sad that we drove/waited all this time for nothing. At about 5:31pm we noticed the bottom of the falls started to glow. Sure enough a couple seconds later the clouds parted and the entire falls lit up on fire, right before our eyes! We had 7 minutes to snap our hearts away (and stop and just gawk at this amazing site) before the sun set and the firefalls returned to waterfalls. I rented a Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR for this shoot. I wanted to make sure I got the sharpest images possible. I stuck my old 70-300mm lens on my D80 and an extra tripod and snapped away with that as well. I should have paid more attention to my good camera/lens because I made some silly mistakes (like allowing the photos to be over-exposed) due to my running back and forth between cameras. I hope you enjoy these photos of Horsetail Falls (Fire Falls)! Destroyer of The One Ring Taken on February 13, 2011 at Horsetail Falls in Yosemite National Park, CA
Destroyer of the One Ring (2) Horsetail Falls, Fire Falls Yosemite National Park, CA For two weeks every year Horsetail Falls, in Yosemite National Park, becomes one of the most sought after spots to photograph. Made famous by Galen Rowell in his "Natural Firefall photograph" (Ansel Adams did document this photograph but as a black-and-white landscape photo), many photographers (including myself) try to duplicate his effort. Situated on the northern side of the valley, and at the extreme eastern end of the El Capitan monolith wall, the falls catch the last rays of the setting sun for only about one month of the year.  At midwinter, the sun sets below the southwestern rim.  As the year progresses, the sun sets a bit further north along the western horizon.  By the end of January, if you are standing at the El Capitan picnic area parking lot, you can see the sun setting in the Gunsight, the V between Cathedral rocks on the eastern side of Bridal Veil Falls.  By the first few days of February, it sets to the right of the lowest Cathedral rock.  Provided the sky is clear, the sunlight illuminates the entire El Capitan North America wall, and if you are in a position east of the falls, it backlights the water, making it glow with amazing colors In mid-to-late February each year, when the atmospheric conditions as well as the angle of the sun, hit Horsetail Falls just right, the entire falls look as if they are *ON FIRE*! In order for the falls to burn you need sunlight (the clouds can't be blocking the setting sun), and water (which occurs when the snowpack above El Capitan is melting). There are 3 places that you can easily view Horsetail Falls. The first, and most popular, is the El Capitan picnic area (on Northside Drive). This provides the closest view, but it's at further east and a harsher angle and some people didn't see the falls light up from this spot while the other locations did. The two other locations are along Southside Drive, with the best spot being where we snapped away (GPS coordinates 37.72783,-119.609). We got to Yosemite at about noon on Sunday, hoping that the incoming storm would keep the clouds away and light up the falls for us. We scoped out all 3 locations and decided that the Southside Dr location was best. We arrived back there at 2:30pm, which was just in time, because photographers were starting to line up and we had to rush to claim a good spot. We made friends with the photographers around us -- which was a good thing because we had 3 hours to kill while the sun set. Peak "Firefalling" was supposed to start at 5:22pm but clouds had settled in and we started to get sad that we drove/waited all this time for nothing. At about 5:31pm we noticed the bottom of the falls started to glow. Sure enough a couple seconds later the clouds parted and the entire falls lit up on fire, right before our eyes! We had 7 minutes to snap our hearts away (and stop and just gawk at this amazing site) before the sun set and the firefalls returned to waterfalls. I rented a Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR for this shoot. I wanted to make sure I got the sharpest images possible. I stuck my old 70-300mm lens on my D80 and an extra tripod and snapped away with that as well. I should have paid more attention to my good camera/lens because I made some silly mistakes (like allowing the photos to be over-exposed) due to my running back and forth between cameras. I hope you enjoy these photos of Horsetail Falls (Fire Falls)! Destroyer of The One Ring Taken on February 13, 2011 at Horsetail Falls in Yosemite National Park, CA
Small waterfalls just before Kipu Falls Taken on September 14, 2010 in Kauai, Hawaii
Stormy Day 2 Yosemite National Park California When we got back to the campsite after hiking Nevada Falls we were pretty wet, hungry, and frozen (Sammi had turned into an ice-cube). To warm up we decided to go to Curry Village and get some coffee, hot-chocolate, and just roam around the store and pick up some souvenirs. Zack offered to drive (which I thought was silly) but his car was going to be super warm and Sammi needed to thaw, so I took him up on his offer. Unfortunately, there was a HUGE line of traffic from people trying to leave early on Saturday evening. I think we sat in line for about 30 minutes just trying to move the 0.2miles to Curry Village. At one point I got sick of waiting in the car so I got out, took my camera, and decided to see if maybe everything was stopped because of a bear (there was no bear, it was just a lot of traffic). As I was walking along the road just outside of the Pines campground and just next to Curry Village, I looked up and saw some *amazing* clouds over Yosemite Falls. They made just enough of an opening for Yosemite Falls to peak through it. I immediately put my camera to my eye and snapped away!
Classic Ansel Valley View Yosemite National Park, CA El Capitan, Half Dome, and Bridalveil Falls from Tunnel View Taken on May 23, 2010 at Tunnel View in Yosemite National Park, CA On Sunday we finally got warmer weather and blue skies. I really wanted to get a blue-skied shot from Tunnel View and I knew Sunday was going to be the day for it. I was also excited because there were still some clouds around that would make the shot a bit more interesting. The lighting was decent for shooting at noon, but things still were a bit murky without taking multiple exposures. I really wanted to capture the fact that there is still SNOW in the mountains (near Half Dome).
Spring Waterfall Steps Down During Storm Taken on May 22, 2010 near Curry Village in Yosemite National Park, CA
Stormy Day Yosemite National Park California When we got back to the campsite after hiking Nevada Falls we were pretty wet, hungry, and frozen. To warm up we decided to go to Curry Village and get some coffee, hot-chocolate, and just roam around the store and pick up some souvenirs. My friend offered to drive (which I thought was silly) but his car was going to be super warm and we needed to thaw, so I took him up on his offer. Unfortunately, there was a HUGE line of traffic from people trying to leave early on Saturday evening. I think we sat in line for about 30 minutes just trying to move the 0.2miles to Curry Village. At one point I got sick of waiting in the car so I got out, took my camera, and decided to see if maybe everything was stopped because of a bear (there was no bear, it was just a lot of traffic). As I was walking along the road just outside of the Pines campground and just next to Curry Village, I looked up and saw some *amazing* clouds over Yosemite Falls. They made just enough of an opening for Yosemite Falls to peak through it. I immediately put my camera to my eye and snapped away!
Night's Tail
Horsetail Falls, Fire Falls, via Moonlight
Yosemite National Park, CA

Many photographers know about Horsetail Falls in Yosemite and that every February it lights up into a "Fire Falls." In fact, I photographed this exact event in February of this year and it was spectacular. Many photographers, however, do not know that the same phenomenon occurs via moonlight on some rare occasions!

On Saturday, April 16th 2011 I woke up at 3am and headed over to the Picnic Grounds at Yosemite National Park. When I arrived the moon was really lighting up the falls but the angle wasn't quite right to turn the falls red. After a couple minutes of setting up and figuring out my camera settings all of a sudden the photos started turning orange! It lasted for about 10 minutes before the falls were completely dark.

Note that to the human eye the falls appeared white but to the camera it appeared red! The human eye has 2 photo-receptors: rods and cones. Cones are really good at detail and color but require a lot of light. They don't work so well in low light (night). Rods on the other hand, are really good at low light but they can't detect color. So at night, in this scene, our eye only saw the brightness of the falls but the camera sensor saw the beautiful color!

There is NO saturation change to this. The only thing I did after taking this photo was a small white balance adjustment, some sharpening, and some noise reduction!

I'd also like to note the difficulties in taking this photo. It was nearly pitch black and the camera cannot focus at all. Additionally, using LiveMode, as I did during the sunset Fire Falls, doesn't work either since the LiveMode displayed a completely black view. I had to set the camera to focus at infinity, took a photo, and then tweaked the focus. I continued this until I got a shot that was in focus. Additionally, since there's so little light I had to bump the ISO wayyyyyy up. Additionally, I had to turn "Long Exposure Noise Reduction" and "High ISO Noise Reduction" off or I would have missed out on taking photos of the event. I did the noise reduction later on in Photoshop. Lastly, I had to keep the shutter short just to try to keep the star trails to a minimum.

Nikon D300s w/Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR:
112mm, f/4.8, 30 sec, ISO 2000, Tripod
Night's Tail Horsetail Falls, Fire Falls, via Moonlight Yosemite National Park, CA Many photographers know about Horsetail Falls in Yosemite and that every February it lights up into a "Fire Falls." In fact, I photographed this exact event in February of this year and it was spectacular. Many photographers, however, do not know that the same phenomenon occurs via moonlight on some rare occasions! On Saturday, April 16th 2011 I woke up at 3am and headed over to the Picnic Grounds at Yosemite National Park. When I arrived the moon was really lighting up the falls but the angle wasn't quite right to turn the falls red. After a couple minutes of setting up and figuring out my camera settings all of a sudden the photos started turning orange! It lasted for about 10 minutes before the falls were completely dark. Note that to the human eye the falls appeared white but to the camera it appeared red! The human eye has 2 photo-receptors: rods and cones. Cones are really good at detail and color but require a lot of light. They don't work so well in low light (night). Rods on the other hand, are really good at low light but they can't detect color. So at night, in this scene, our eye only saw the brightness of the falls but the camera sensor saw the beautiful color! There is NO saturation change to this. The only thing I did after taking this photo was a small white balance adjustment, some sharpening, and some noise reduction! I'd also like to note the difficulties in taking this photo. It was nearly pitch black and the camera cannot focus at all. Additionally, using LiveMode, as I did during the sunset Fire Falls, doesn't work either since the LiveMode displayed a completely black view. I had to set the camera to focus at infinity, took a photo, and then tweaked the focus. I continued this until I got a shot that was in focus. Additionally, since there's so little light I had to bump the ISO wayyyyyy up. Additionally, I had to turn "Long Exposure Noise Reduction" and "High ISO Noise Reduction" off or I would have missed out on taking photos of the event. I did the noise reduction later on in Photoshop. Lastly, I had to keep the shutter short just to try to keep the star trails to a minimum. Nikon D300s w/Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR: 112mm, f/4.8, 30 sec, ISO 2000, Tripod" href="javascript:openLB(1255081621,'',XLarge,'',510,768);">Night's Tail Horsetail Falls, Fire Falls, via Moonlight Yosemite National Park, CA Many photographers know about Horsetail Falls in Yosemite and that every February it lights up into a "Fire Falls." In fact, I photographed this exact event in February of this year and it was spectacular. Many photographers, however, do not know that the same phenomenon occurs via moonlight on some rare occasions! On Saturday, April 16th 2011 I woke up at 3am and headed over to the Picnic Grounds at Yosemite National Park. When I arrived the moon was really lighting up the falls but the angle wasn't quite right to turn the falls red. After a couple minutes of setting up and figuring out my camera settings all of a sudden the photos started turning orange! It lasted for about 10 minutes before the falls were completely dark. Note that to the human eye the falls appeared white but to the camera it appeared red! The human eye has 2 photo-receptors: rods and cones. Cones are really good at detail and color but require a lot of light. They don't work so well in low light (night). Rods on the other hand, are really good at low light but they can't detect color. So at night, in this scene, our eye only saw the brightness of the falls but the camera sensor saw the beautiful color! There is NO saturation change to this. The only thing I did after taking this photo was a small white balance adjustment, some sharpening, and some noise reduction! I'd also like to note the difficulties in taking this photo. It was nearly pitch black and the camera cannot focus at all. Additionally, using LiveMode, as I did during the sunset Fire Falls, doesn't work either since the LiveMode displayed a completely black view. I had to set the camera to focus at infinity, took a photo, and then tweaked the focus. I continued this until I got a shot that was in focus. Additionally, since there's so little light I had to bump the ISO wayyyyyy up. Additionally, I had to turn "Long Exposure Noise Reduction" and "High ISO Noise Reduction" off or I would have missed out on taking photos of the event. I did the noise reduction later on in Photoshop. Lastly, I had to keep the shutter short just to try to keep the star trails to a minimum. Nikon D300s w/Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR: 112mm, f/4.8, 30 sec, ISO 2000, Tripod
Night's Tail
Horsetail Falls, Fire Falls, via Moonlight
Yosemite National Park, CA

Many photographers know about Horsetail Falls in Yosemite and that every February it lights up into a "Fire Falls." In fact, I photographed this exact event in February of this year and it was spectacular. Many photographers, however, do not know that the same phenomenon occurs via moonlight on some rare occasions!

On Saturday, April 16th 2011 I woke up at 3am and headed over to the Picnic Grounds at Yosemite National Park. When I arrived the moon was really lighting up the falls but the angle wasn't quite right to turn the falls red. After a couple minutes of setting up and figuring out my camera settings all of a sudden the photos started turning orange! It lasted for about 10 minutes before the falls were completely dark.

Note that to the human eye the falls appeared white but to the camera it appeared red! The human eye has 2 photo-receptors: rods and cones. Cones are really good at detail and color but require a lot of light. They don't work so well in low light (night). Rods on the other hand, are really good at low light but they can't detect color. So at night, in this scene, our eye only saw the brightness of the falls but the camera sensor saw the beautiful color!

There is NO saturation change to this. The only thing I did after taking this photo was a small white balance adjustment, some sharpening, and some noise reduction!

I'd also like to note the difficulties in taking this photo. It was nearly pitch black and the camera cannot focus at all. Additionally, using LiveMode, as I did during the sunset Fire Falls, doesn't work either since the LiveMode displayed a completely black view. I had to set the camera to focus at infinity, took a photo, and then tweaked the focus. I continued this until I got a shot that was in focus. Additionally, since there's so little light I had to bump the ISO wayyyyyy up. Additionally, I had to turn "Long Exposure Noise Reduction" and "High ISO Noise Reduction" off or I would have missed out on taking photos of the event. I did the noise reduction later on in Photoshop. Lastly, I had to keep the shutter short just to try to keep the star trails to a minimum.

Nikon D300s w/Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR:
112mm, f/4.8, 30 sec, ISO 2000, Tripod
See photo in original gallery.
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