Wednesday, February 23, 2005

I must have a Yosemite Falls fixation. Although I wander around the valley "shooting" everything in sight, I keep being drawn back to those two distinctly different toppling towers of water again and again.

I think I've already expressed favoritism for Upper Yosemite, but when I left the cabin this morning, I was on a mission to capture a Lower Yosemite rainbow. It isn't hard; they show up at around 9:00 a.m. this time of year, if the sun's out. You just have to be there. I tried a number of framings and wound up liking this horizontal one.

The night had been cold, so Upper Yosemite was sporting a frosty moustache that drooped down the vertical granite face on either side of the waterfall. It looked pretty cool from almost every angle, but when it came time to pick one for tonight's journal entry, this one got my vote.

I stumbled across the one on the right on my way back from a Mirror Lake expedition (more coming up on that very soon). Clouds and mist filtered the sunlight into a soft beam that swept across the wall. The colors were strange...reminds me of a medieval scene for some reason. I can almost imagine a castle at the top.

I think I'm going to develop an anti-hiking policy. Seems like every time I have to walk up a trail to see something cool, my footsteps outnumber my photographs, and that's not good. After nearly killing myself on the Upper Yosemite Falls ascension last week, this time I tried the easy trail up to Mirror Lake.

It was, essentially, a reconnaissance mission. I often use the time mid-day, when the light isn't at its most dynamic, to search out new locations. Although this picture isn't a prize winner, I see potential for a snowy scene (not in the cards this year, I'm afraid) and a springtime scene. I'll be back in early May for another two weeks, completing the second half of my Yosemite Renaissance Artist-in-Residence. We'll see how Mirror Lake looks then.

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