Horsetail Falls
What a phenomenal sight seeing Horsetail Fall's Fire Fall. At exactly 5:30pm, a water fall created by snow melt was illuminated by the perfect sunset, crea...
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What a phenomenal sight seeing Horsetail Fall's Fire Fall. At exactly 5:30pm, a water fall created by snow melt was illuminated by the perfect sunset, creating a lava effect.
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Feb, 2016Views
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Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
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shagtym
March 26, 2016
Join the conversation. Add a comment or even better, a critique. Let's get better together!
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StephenSPotterPhoto
December 20, 2018
This photo is very reminiscent of the old Yosemite “Firefall” I saw back in the 1950’s when every night in Summer, glowing embers were slowly pushed off of the cliff from Glacier Point.
StephenSPotterPhoto
December 20, 2018
Every night at 9:00 P.M., a gentleman in Camp Curry would shout with his hands cupped around his mouth, “LET THE FIRE FALL!” and Glacier Point’s reply would be “THE FIRE FALLS!”
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in Yosemite, California which was a 4 hour journey starting at 4am. Being that I mostly am a people photographer, landscape work has been mostly outside my realm of understanding in photography.Time
This shot was one we would wait hours for. After a 4 hour drive we found our spot behind the El Capitan Mountain directly staring at Horsetail Falls. We left our tripods with a friend who would wait 8 hours in this area to ensure our spot for sunset around 5:30pm.Lighting
As 5:30pm approached the sunlight beam seemed to narrow smaller and smaller until suddenly the entire waterfall glowed like lava. It was absolutely spectacular. I continued shooting until the light was gone. Suddenly about 3 minutes later, the last light came back and this dark orange red color appeared. A lot of photographers at this point had packed up their gear thinking the sunset was complete, so I felt lucky to have stuck around to catch this.Equipment
I shot this with a 24-70 2.8 Sigma on a Canon 6D Body. for stabilization I mounted the body onto a tripod so that I could keep my ISO fairly low and reduce noise as much as possible.Inspiration
A Co-Worker of mine is an amazing landscape photographer and since I don't have a lot of practice in this area of photography, he decided to take a few of us up to Yosemite for a photo trip. After doing a number of calculations, he determined this day would be prime for snow melt vs sunlight, creating the perfect "Fire Fall". Knowing that this event hadn't happened in 5 years due to the drought in California, I couldn't miss the opportunity to not only shoot this amazing scene, but to witness it's beauty in person.Editing
I was surprised at how little post processing I had to do to this photo. I purposely shot this image on the dark side to bring out more of the color in the "fire fall". When post-processing, I added a few points of saturation and a little bit of clarity to bring out the detail in the rocks but the reality of the scene was amazing and didn't need much help.In my camera bag
I always have my 24-70 Sigma 2.8 lens on my Canon 6D ready to go in my bag. I love this ranged lens because I can shoot almost any scenario with it. Along with this set, I carry two speed light canon flashes, a tripod, and a canon 50mm 1.8 as a back up just in case my lens breaks or falters. I prefer to pack light because I do a lot of hiking, running around, and in some cases kneeling to get certain angles. Too much weight can inhibit my options during my shooting but it's good to be prepared with back-ups. I tend to have extra memory, way too many batteries, and chargers just to be sure.Feedback
This shot took a lot of planning and patience. The specific phenomenon happening in this shot only happens in Yosemite during the last 2 weeks of February and only if there has been enough snow fall that year in order for the waterfall to flow. I recommend bringing an extremely sturdy tripod so that you can have complete control of your settings and not be limited to low light settings. My ISO was set to about 100 with Aperture Priority set to 9. This scene is popular so many photographers will travel to get this shot, with that in mind, arrive early to get parking and your spot. Although you'll be waiting for a number of hours, the final result is worth the patience. Happy Shooting!
