Totokonoolah I

Chasing yet again another annual opportunity to capture the ever-elusive, golden-hour ‘Firefalls’ of the Horsetail Falls on the southeastern face of Totokonoolah (also known as El Capitán) in Yosemite Valley in February of 2016. Cold and snowy but not prohibitively so. One cannot go for a single purpose and not be (completely) distracted by the awesome yet sublime power of Yosemite’s monumental rock formations and the sheer beauty of the valley itself. In the middle of the day I had extra time so I was out exploring ‘off the beaten path’ looking for frames, watching the weather, the light. Always fascinated with mountains and their imposing faces, combined with a healthy dose of acrophobia, the likes of Totokonoolah and Tissasack (Half-Dome) have a reverent draw for me. I love studying subjects ahead of time; seeing what others have done and seeking out a method of capturing it from my own, personal aesthetic. This, I believe, is a wonderful result. I was fortunate the clouds framed the mountain so gently…softening something so monolithically hardened and imposing.