The "fire" waterfall of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park is one of the most spectacular of all sceneries.
The spectacular view of the waterfall is created by the reflection of sunlight hitting the falling water at a specific angle. This rare sight can only be seen at a 2-week period towards the end of February. To photograph this rare event, photographers would often have to wait and endure years of patience in order to capture them. The reason is because its appearance depends on a few natural phenomena occurring at the same time and luck.
1st, is the formation of the waterfall - the water is formed by the melting of snow and ice at the top of the mountain. It melts between the month of December and January and by the end of February there might not have much snow left to melt.
2nd, is the specific angle of the sunray hitting the falling water - the sun's position must be exactly at a particular spot in the sky. This occurs only in the month of February and at the short hours of dusk. If it is a day full of clouds or something blocking the sun, you can only take pictures of your own sorry faces on the waterfall. It coincides with the fact that the weather in the National Park at that time of the year is often volatile and unpredictable. It compounds the difficulty of getting these pictures.
But someone did !!! and we all get to see it !!!
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO NORMALLY JUST SKIM THROUGH THE WORDS (ERICK, THIS MEANS YOU) . . . I DID NOT TAKE THESE PICTURES. I GOT IT IN AN E-MAIL.
9 comments:
Absolutely awesome shots! When did you go to Yosemite, I don't even remember you leaving town. What do you mean I don't read your blog? Of course I read almost every other third word.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
These pictures are awesome. What an accomplishment for the photographer. The falls in itself are beautiful, these photos made it even more so.
Betty, it must be just awesome to see for real yeah.
so shall I make our reservations now or you want me to wait till the prices come down?? ;)
Les, no need. With our luck we'd just end up taking pictures of each other.
Its been a long time since we've been to Yosemite. We were really close when we went on that ride through the Gold Country on my birthday. I have heard that in recent years the falls haven't been that good. It all depends on the type of winter we've heard and the snow pack. Yosemite is beautiful though. The photo ops would be awesome. You guys should come and we'd drive down and meet up with you.
Betty, sounds like a good plan. Maybe for our next trip.
Those are nice shots! At first I thought it was a lava flow. Good thing I read! :)
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