Cook's Meadow, Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, CA, 10/19/2009
There's an old saying that if you want to make good photographs, go out in bad weather. A half hour before the moment captured here on this autumn day, the sky in Yosemite Valley was so dark, gray, and gloomy, and the rainstorm seemed so relentless that I believed there was no hope for any photography that day. Then suddenly the sky lightened, the rainfall diminished, and I began to look around the Cook's Meadow area for possible subjects to photograph in the shade. But the clouds continued to thin and the sun began to shine! I looked up at Yosemite Falls and saw that the fog and clouds were rapidly clearing away. I made this single exposure just as the upper fall was becoming visible. The famous and gifted photographer Galen Rowell referred to this type of photograph as a dynamic landscape - constantly changing, and never to be seen again. The total height of Yosemite Falls is 2,425 feet, and the height of the longest drop (the upper fall) is 1,430 feet. Yosemite Falls is the tallest waterfall in North America and the sixth tallest waterfall in the world.
