Monday, May 9, 2005

Rain, snow, hail...and finally, sunshine! It was raining when I went to bed last evening, and throughout the night I heard the wind whistling around the cabin and the sound of raindrops on the roof. This morning, there was a light layer of snow all over, and as I walked down to the truck, tiny pellets of hail bounced off my shoulders. Should be an interesting day, I thought.

In the valley, persistent showers kept the sunlight cool-toned and my photographic efforts storm-inspired. The Merced River overflowed its banks again, leaving a number of trees with their "feet" wet. A puddle that had formed earlier in Cook's Meadow had nearly doubled in size, and I used it as the basis for my first picture of the day, catching the reflection of Yosemite Falls on its surface as seen in the image at the top right.

I was in motion almost all day, chasing the light, and one of my morning sojourns took me beneath the wall of El Capitan. When I looked up, I was surprised to see a bright yellow tent attached to the vertical cliff, a climber had spent the night there waiting for the weather to break. I went on to photograph the unnamed waterfall at the far right. Later in the day, I passed El Capitan again, saw the tent still in place, and closer inspection revealed a human figure just below and to the right of the shelter. Climbers' nonchalance to altitude and lack of solid footing continues to amaze me...

I used the flat light to photograph more dogwood blossoms in various states and configurations (not shown here), then as the rain got heavier and seemed to settle in, I parked on the north loop turn-off across from Bridalveil Fall and pulled out my current paperback to read while waiting for something to happen.

In less time than it took to read a chapter, the sky brightened in the west, and beams of light began to poke through. In hopes of catching a rainbow, I drove up to Tunnel View to join a growing collection of shooters who'd also reacted to the light. No rainbows appeared, but the constantly changing light and cloud patterns produced the dramatic weather image of Bridalveil Fall and the valley at the right along with a good variety of other compositions wrapping up a questionable day on a positive note.

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