On Golden Pond

Along Yosemite’s Southside Drive, as you leave the Bridalveil Fall area, there is a winding segment of road that is canopied by Bigleaf Maple, Pacific Dogwood, and Black Oak, some of which turn brilliant yellow in autumn. In some years, the leaves dry out before full color hits, and in others, a cold snap and big wind can put a lot of the leaves on the ground. This year was not the best, but it certainly wasn’t disappointing. 

Even in an off year, or even if you miss peak color, it’s not difficult to find some color in Yosemite. With all the micro-climate zones—one might even call them nano-climates, what with the various elevations, location relative to the valley walls, exposure to water, even the river level itself at a particular spot—autumn can start early, even in September, or arrive late as in this image from November on the Merced:

As a photographer, the challenge is finding the prospect you want—e.g., El Cap, or Three Brothers, or whatever—decorated by beautiful color as at the top. And that’s not always easy. Sometimes, circumstances gently nudge you in a different direction than you had anticipated, perhaps looking more intimately at a small setting of color and motion:

On this particular afternoon, we were checking out the various turnouts on Southside Drive. Color on the road was nice, but color by the Merced River was very sparse. The warming sun, however, was golden and bright, and its reflection illuminated the Merced below it. It was sublime:The title of this piece is On Golden Pond, in reference to the still pool of water in the river that captured the brightest part of El Cap's reflection.  It was imaged with the Phase One XT and IQ4.150 with a Rodenstock 23mm lens. Its full-frame equivalence is about 13mm, which might be more than you want to know, but it tells you a lot about just how huge this prospect is. And if you did not stop and get out of your car, you would never see this.