Congratulations to Sean Goebel for winning Feature Thread of the Week with 7 votes - View Previous Winners
I normally lurk this board and rarely post, but I recently had a photo trip of above-average productivity, so I figured I'll post.
In 2011, I photographed the Yosemite firefall from the bank of the Merced River. There were too many people even then. I lose interest in photography if there's a crowd. My photographic philosophy is to seek out new astro-landscape alignments. For the last several years, I've wanted to shoot the firefall from the rim of the valley, and I wanted fresh snow, but I was repeatedly foiled. This basically required that a storm happen in a 2-week period of February and cleanly clear, leaving blue skies. A tall order. In 2020, there was no snow. In 2019, I flew from DC to California, but I couldn't enter the park because all entrances were closed due to extreme snow. In 2018, there was inadequate snow. In 2017, I had a scheduling conflict.
This year I finally was successful. It was alternately raining and snowing on me as I snowshoed the 12 miles to Glacier Point, dragging a sled of gear behind me. I had to break trail since no one else had been out there recently, and so it took 10 hours to go from Badger Pass to Glacier Point (the return trip, with packed down snow, was a mere 5 hours). I then camped three nights near Glacier Point and a night at Sentinel Dome, and photographed the firefall each evening. Below are a few of my images.
I saw a total of one other person near Glacier Point during the five days I was out there. A few days after I left, though, a couple other photographers apparently visited Sentinel Dome for a night.
I also filmed extensive timelapse video. If you follow me on Vimeo at vimeo .com/sgphotos (remove the space), in a few months I'll post a Yosemite timelapse montage containing my past decade-plus of nightscape adventures around the park. EDIT: how in the world do I link to a URL? The hyperlink button seems broken.
Congratulations! Finally we get to see something different from Yosemite other than the boring Tunnel View/Valley floor/Dogwoods clichés from the usual St-Ansel-worshipping bores (almost as boring as the saint himself).
Geez, what a dedication. You really wanted to get this shot. Hiking for 12 hours in snow is crazy difficult and tiring. I hike quite a bit but my longest hike was about 7 hours in a single day, and I was very tired. But 12? I can't imaging what kind of drive or desire you have in you to go this far to get a shot you want....
You've got my vote
Having said that, I gotta say I'm not too crazy about firefall shots. I've seen in a last couple of days just about a million of them on Facebook. They are all exactly the same as if one photographer took a pic from the other and post it as his/her own. Yours is different, from above, and I really like that. But what I really dig in your first shot (without even looking at the small fragment of the granite where the waterfall is) is that it actually shows the sun and how the valley is illuminated. The composition is great too, not as those common internet shots showing just the waterfall. On some (when I saw them for the first time) I didn't know what I'm looking at. Your third shot is also very cool.
Sean, hats off to you on your 12 hour hike!! First one is truly spectacular. Yours is different, from above, and I really like that. Persistence payed off and the drive you had to get this composition is truly amazing. Thanks and the Yosemite Firefall thru your lens is awesome. YGMV
I really admire the effort and persistence to get these shots. I prefer the first two because of the beautiful light that you captured. I enjoyed the entire set as well as the story, but to be honest I'm just not a big fan of the star trails.
Super work, I admire the effort you put in to get these. Being there alone is worth the effort for me getting excellent shots like this is a super bonus!
