Winter's View

Winter's View

One photo that has been high on my bucket list was a snowy Yosemite photo. Willie and I have been keeping an eye on the recent storms in the Eastern Sierras and a huge one hit over Christmas weekend, dropping over 7 feet of snow in one day in some areas I rented a 4 wheel drive vehicle and Willie, Alan, my girlfriend and I drove into Yosemite just as the storm cleared.

We arrived at Yosemite to see the entire place covered in white It was insanely gorgeous. The storm had moved out a bit quicker than we had hoped and we arrived late, to clear skies. As we looked west we saw another set of clouds coming in and we hoped we might be in luck After scouting several locations we decided that Ansel Adams had it right and we found our way over to Tunnel View for sunset. We were not disappointed Some low fog rolled into the valley, the trees stayed covered in white, and a slit of light made its way onto El Capitan for a beautiful view

To my surprise, my favorite image from the day happened to be one I had not expected at all. An almost full-moon rose just after the sun set, right during blue hour, and everyone raced around to capture the moon rising over Half Dome. I threw on my 80-200mm lens until Alan mentioned, hey, try going wide. By this point I was cold, tired, and ready to get home before the roads turned awful so I fired 1 quick shot, packed up my bags and went to warm up in the car. When I got home I realized how right Alan was I liked this shot more than all my others

In the end we spent twice as much time driving as we did in Yosemite but it was well worth it

Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S:
55mm, f/11, 30 sec, ISO 200
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Aaron M Written by:

Aaron Meyers is a landscape and wedding photographer living in Silicon Valley, CA. His love of the outdoors makes for frequent forays into the Californian wilds, where he delights in the stunning vistas of Yosemite National Park, Lake Tahoe, Big Sur, and the Pacific Coast.