Moody Skies over Tunnel View Yosemite National Park, California Every year around Valentines Day the setting sun lines up such that it strikes the rock wall next to El Capitan and lights up a waterfall, known as Horsetail Falls, to give the illusion of spewing fire. We call this the “Fire Falls”, although many will remember the original “Fire Falls” when a now long-gone hotel upon Glacier Point would throw their burning coal off the one of the cliffs. With the explosion of Social Media just about every photographer in the world knows about this and flocks to Yosemite to witness and photograph the event: myself included. The winter of 2012-2013 was very dry and as a result Horsetail Falls, which is fed from snow-melt, didn’t exist. My hopes of photographing it again were dashed and instead Willie, Alan, and I spent the weekend running around from place to play trying to find something decent to photograph. One morning we woke up to cloudy skies and decided to try our luck at the popular Tunnel View. Many other photographers were there but we all were treated to a beautiful ring of fog that decided to hug El Capitan. Between the ring of fog and the cloudy skies this made for a very moody scene. I named this photo “Captains Embrace” because I loved the way the fog embraced El Capitan. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 70mm, f/16, 0.6 sec, ISO 64
Fog over the Pacific Ocean Hawk Hill, San Francisco, California Most of the time when there’s low fog at the Golden Gate Bridge I find myself there during sunRISE. OK, perhaps not “most of the time” ... I’ve actually never been at the Golden Gate Bridge for low fog at sunSET. On this particular evening, however, my plans to photograph the SF coast were thwarted by fog and I quickly made my way over to the Bridge. Although the fog had ruined my chances of shooting the coast, it hadn’t quite made its way over to the Golden Gate Bridge. In yet another detour from my plans, I made my way over towards the Pacific Coast side of Hawk Hill and looked out over a giant blanket of fog. Off in the distance the fog was beginning to envelop this hill and I loved the way the fog obscured the hills and created a giant blanket behind the trees. The line section of road helps draw the eye into the photograph. I chose to keep this photo dark so that it would stick with the mood of the scene. Additionally, since the sun had set and blue hour was now starting to set in, the fog took a slightly blue tone. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED: 185mm, f/13, 30 sec, ISO 100
Narrow BeautyThe Narrows, Wall Street section Zion National Park, Utah One of the most amazing hikes in Zion National Park is The Narrows. Once Willie, Yan, and I donned on our drysuit pants, neoprene socks and canyoneering shoes we trudged 9 miles up and down the Virgin River through this beautiful slot canyon. In the morning the suns rays bounce off the red rock walls, causing them to glow with beautiful color. One of the first spots we found with glowing walls was here in the middle of Wall Street. This is only a small section of the rock wall that was lit with a beautiful orange and yellow but I really loved how the water was also reflecting the color. I decided to use a less traditional landscape (horizontal) orientation so that I could include the glow of the water in this photo. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 24mm, f/11, 1.3 sec, ISO 320 B+W Circular Polarizer
