El Capitan Meadow near Northside Drive, Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, CA, 10/29/2008
This day of autumn photography in Yosemite Valley ended exactly the way it started, with me capturing the look of El Capitan Meadow beneath its towering namesake just as the meadow became bathed in sunlight. I focused on the same graceful russet oaks by the meadow's edge that I did at sunrise. In doing so I learned this area at this time of year receives direct late afternoon sunlight for only a couple of minutes! Starting about noon the meadow here is in total shade. Just before setting hours later, the sun makes a brief final appearance through a notch between the mountains to the west. Autumn in Yosemite is a beautiful time, and although the colors are more subtle than in the American northeast, I enjoy the shades of yellow, gold, and russet that can be found here. El Capitan is the largest exposed granite face in the world and rises 3,600 feet above the valley floor. Yosemite Valley is characterized by sheer walls and a level floor. Its evolution began when glaciers lumbered through the canyon of the Merced River. Ice carved through weaker sections of granite removing and scouring rock but leaving harder, more solid portions - such as El Capitan - intact and greatly enlarging the canyon that the river had carved through successive uplifts of the Sierra.
