Tag Archives: little red tent

Thinking of Photographing Yosemite’s Horsetail Fall?

Horsetail Fall. Yosemite National Park, California. February 16, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell - all rights reserved.

Horsetail Fall. Yosemite National Park, California. February 16, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

During the second half of the winter season the setting sun lines up just right to cast a final beam of light onto a southwest-facing portion of El Capitan. When conditions are just right the snow-filled area above El Capitan warms a bit at about this time and seasonal Horsetail Fall may drop over the edge of El Capitan. If everything falls in place just so, the beam of warm sunset light strikes the upper portion of the fall, and if  you happen to be in the right areas in the Valley you can witness what has been called the “Yosemite’s natural firefall.”

If you are thinking of going to witness this event, whether as a photographer or just as a viewer, you might want to follow Edie Howe’s Little Red Tent blog. Edie lives in the Valley, and is known for posting firsthand reports on conditions that may – or may not – produce this seasonal spectacle. (If you want to see the light on Horsetail Fall, you should be aware that conditions have to be just right – and your chances improve if you have some travel flexibility and can be there for more than one day.)

Any post on this phenomenon should acknowledge Galen’s Rowell’s famous photograph of Horsetail Fall, and the fact that any later photograph of this scene will unavoidably be compared to his image.

Trading Prints: Jim Goldstein

During the latter part of 2008 I posted more than once about my participation in Jim M. Goldstein’s Buying Prints project. I’m a bit slow about this stuff, but I get to it eventually!

Earlier this fall I wrote about meeting up with Edie Howe in Yosemite to trade one of my aspen photographs for one of her images from Mono Lake. Last week I finally managed to connect with Jim to make our trade – a copy of my Submerged Boulders, Lake, and Cliffs for a copy of his Primitive Coastline. Jim is a fine landscape and nature/wildlife photographer and also quite the photography writer, blogger, and podcaster. (Follow the link in the first paragraph back to his web site to find out more.)

One of the great things about doing the print exchanges for me is that I get to meet photographers who I otherwise only know from their online personalities. It was a special pleasure to meet Jim and his wife Cindy in their home, talk photography a bit, take a look at some of Jim’s work that currently only exists on his computer, and then to accompany the two of them to a holiday party where I met more photographers. Thanks Jim and Cindy!