Looking up, the world is reduced to a crescent of sunlight between the cliff walls the river has carved over the eons of time.
Ahead, around the next bend, the river is a trail that you cannot lose. Follow upstream, clothing wet, water sloshing in your hiking boots, and who knows what you’ll find?
[This photo: 18mm in 35mm terms, 2.5 seconds at f/22 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.]
As dusk darkened to night, my exposures got longer and longer until the swirl trails of the stars echoed the swirls in the rock of the Wave.
To take this photo, I needed to wait until darkness out in the desert with the ordeal that was to come. But, I say, since all’s well that ends well, well worth it!
I left home after dinner. It took me a bit more than an hour to drive to the parking lot at Bear Valley (this is also the Point Reyes visitor center).
The sun had just set and the clouds were decorated with red and gold as I laced on my hiking boots. Pretty soon the trail to Arch Rock became a tunnel through a different universe. I saw luminous eyes in the darkness, big bouncy rabbits, and exotic deer. I heard falling water almost all the way, some dripping in rhythmic patterns.
At about four miles, I came out of the dark tunnel into a great valley. My trail met the coastal trail, and the valley opened to the sea.
There was enough light left, barely, to find my way onto a high perch. The forest had been still other than the sounds of animals and the noise from brooks, but here high above the Pacific Ocean, the wind blew and big breakers crashed to the shore.
To the north, I could see the last light of sunset and the curve of Point Reyes.
South from Arch Rock, the cliffs picked up some left-over light radiation from the sunset, while stars peeked through the clouds. Hard by the cliff edge, with my tripod holding fast in the wind, I exposed this image at ten seconds (ISO 100, f/14, 13mm lens), fast enough so that some wave action was apparent but slow enough to capture the renegade remaining photons.
It’s a long way down from the top of Nevada Falls. It made me dizzy to take to take this photo.
I like the sense of being in some kind of bowl – in fact the geology around Nevada Falls has made a giant punch bowl of sorts. You can see the far edges of the “bowl” with the run-off waterfalls coming down in the picture.
An unusual amount of water due to the season and this wet, wet year in the Sierra.
I’m posting this photo from a trip I made a few weeks ago because I am getting so bored with working *for real* – it would be nice to be back in Yosemite.
