The Horsetail Fall Light Show

[Diane Miller]

After hoping for the right conditions for some years, it all came together Thursday at sunset. The fall is very ephemeral, depending on melting snow of top of El Capitan (in Yosemite NP) and the sun angle is only optimal for about a 10 day window. Light depends on clear skies to the west as far as well off the coast south of San Francisco Bay.

For details on the situation, see Michael Frye's blog -- he has been a preeminent Yosemite photographer for 30 years. http://www.michaelfrye.com/landscape-photography-blog/. He shot from a different location -- I was at the one he calls the Galen Rowell view. Scroll well down the page to the Post Archives for several recent articles on it.

Canon 5D3, 100-400 II at 188, f/5.6, ISO 800. Very basic LR work and into PS only for a very slight cloud cleanup along the left edge and Nik's Dfine -- hardy needed but why not.

[Glennie Passier]

Well Diane, I'm gobsmacked! How extraordinarily beautiful. The colour is sublime. I love the light and dampness reflecting off the wall of rock. Outstanding!

[annmpacheco]

Fabulous, looks like it is raining fire! Good job chasing this for years Dianne!

[Don Lacy]

I am so jealous I hear when the conditions are right its shoulder to shoulder with photographers like Mesa Arch times a hundred. The image its self is wonderful thank you for sharing I now have to go dig out my Galen books for even more inspiration it was his images that inspired me to buy a camera and take up nature photography.

[Diane Miller]

Thanks, guys!

Ann, it WAS a rain of fire in the old days -- they built a huge bonfire and when it burned down to coals they shoveled it off one of the cliffs (not this one) in view of a camping area. My husband remembers the "real" one when he was a little kid.

Don -- there is something to reading the fine print (and the weather forecasts). This amazing night there were about 10 people at the spot we chose, and maybe 200 below near the parking lot, where the view was much less spectacular, with the fall less isolated. And probably 200 at the Southside Drive location that Michael Frye refers to. The next night (Friday) there were probably double that but the dimmer switch went on before sunset, with thin clouds between Yosemite and the sunset off the coast south of the Bay Area.

Galen was one of my early inspirations, too. I stop at the gallery in Lone Pine about once a year, and shed a tear every time we fly near the Bishop airport. What a tragedy. And if anyone thinks Barbara was flying -- NO!

I was one of about 7 people at Mesa Arch several years ago. Maybe I do have some luck...

[Don Railton]

Wonderful Diane...! Absolutely Beautiful light and just enough detail in the rocks for me..

Don

[Valerio Tarone]

wonderful,Diane!

[steve torna]

I like it too Diane. My eye is initially drawn to the trees above the falls and then my gaze made it down the falls and to the surrounding rock which also seems to kind of flow. TFS

[Bill Dix]

Just gorgeous, Diane. Well done just being there at the right time and place, and congratulations on capturing the scene just right.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Good to see your persistence paid off! It's a very powerful and graphic image. A crop suggestion I have is to crop from the top to just at the bottom of the pile of rock that also reflects part of the sunlight. By doing so, my eye is drawn even more to the firey water, and it emphasizes the abstract quality of the image. But it's wonderful as presented too.

[Don Lacy]

[QUOTE=Jerry van Dijk;1110340]Good to see your persistence paid off! It's a very powerful and graphic image. A crop suggestion I have is to crop from the top to just at the bottom of the pile of rock that also reflects part of the sunlight. By doing so, my eye is drawn even more to the firey water, and it emphasizes the abstract quality of the image. But it's wonderful as presented too.[/QUOTE
That crop would match the same composition that Galen used for his image, I spent some time the other night looking through a restropective of his images and his compositions was one of the things that stood out to me compared to Diane's image.

[Rachel Hollander]

Diane - I saw this on the news recently. Congrats on getting the image. It works on all counts, very special experience and image.

TFS,
Rachel

[Diane Miller]

Thanks everyone! I did consider that crop and have plenty of IQ to do it. If the rocks on top hadn't been pointing to the top of the fall I would definitely have zoomed in to exclude them. I like it when I can get two for the price of one.

[Satish Ranadive]

Fantastic image. Great show.
Regards,
Satish.

[William Dickson]

This is very striking. Well done Diane.

Will

[Adhika Lie]

Very well done, Diane! Extremely beautiful. I totally missed the chance this year. Something came up at the eleventh hour and I had to cancel my trip. I am so glad you caught this! I have been going every year from 2012 to 2014 to no luck. I love this composition a lot.

[shane shacaluga]

WOW! Bet it feels good to finally nail it after so much planning

Great work! Love the light and the damp rocks. The trees showing at the top give a sense of scale

TFS

[Diane Miller]

Thanks everyone! I feel a lot of effort has paid off. The amazing thing is, there were about 200 people at the wrong spot, next to the parking lot, about 100 yards from where I was, and maybe 10 people at the spot discovered by Galen Rowell. But they were closer to their illegally parked cars.... I got there at 2 pm for a sane parking place for a sunset shot and got the last spot in the regular parking lot. Next to the outhouse. Otherwise it was a bit of a hike from the lane that had been closed on the main road for overflow parking. I think some late arrivals hiked half a mile.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Diane this is one of the finest landscape images I have seen and probably the best of this waterfall. An image to be most proud of!!!

[Diane Miller]

Thanks Andrew! There were so many factors that needed to come together for this image, and the clouds were a bonus. I think I can scratch this one off my bucket list -- but I'll be back anyway if conditions look good next year. There is a different viewpoint that needs to be checked out....

[Morkel Erasmus]

A fabulous display of light on a magnificent landmark, Diane!
Well worth waiting years for...
I saw Michael's post on FB and the lively discussion it evoked. Glad you got a different spot!

I notice a slight halo along the rock edge.

Much of modern landscape photography is focused too much on practically finding worn out tripod holes at iconic spots, slotting your tripod in there and getting the same image everyone else has.
I'd much rather find my own take on something, even if the masses perceive it to be a lesser image of the specific location.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Wow that is amazing the lighting is just mind blowing what a privilege to be there and all your time and effort has been duly rewarded. I trust there is a ginormous print hung up in your house?