Black & White Horsetail, Yosemite National Park, California (Kyle Jones)
Horsetail Falls in Yosemite National Park has received a lot of attention on social media and even in the press lately. There are a few reasons for that: (1) February is the time when the phenomenon occurs (when all the right conditions line up); (2) Since California has gotten some rain and snow this winter, the falls are actually flowing; and (3) It really does look spectacular. Horsetail Falls is a small, seasonal waterfall just east of El Capitan in Yosemite. For a couple of weeks in February the geometry of the cliffs align with the setting sun to make the falls appear like a ribbon fire against the shadowed cliff face at sunset. I took the shot below on 35mm film about 10 years ago on my third attempt to photograph this event.
Horsetail Falls, Yosemite National Park, California (Kyle Jones)
In order to work out, you need to have some snow above the falls to be your water source, warm weather to get the water flowing, and clear skies to the west to provide the light. For the shot above I drove to Yosemite three times in a week, only to have the sun disappear behind clouds at sunset on the first two. I made the trek again this last Sunday with reports of plenty of water and lots of clear skies. I was greeted by thousands of people that had the same idea. I’m not usually a fan of crowds in nature, but everyone was great and I even ran into some friends. I shot the black and white photo at the top of this post while waiting for sunset as I really liked how strongly backlit the falls were along with the cloud moving across the sky. Unfortunately, clouds obscured the sun prior to sunset and a brief moment of pink was as close as we got to the famous Horsetail Firefall (picture below).
Pastel Horsetail, Yosemite National Park, California (Kyle Jones)
Now if you don’t like clouds (or sleep) you can attempt to capture this phenomena by moonlight on the other side of the spring equinox. I drove out to Yosemite a couple of years ago with some friends to give that a try, taking the photo below about 90 minutes before sunrise by the light of the almost full moon. In this case I liked seeing a broader view of the scene with the Merced River in the foreground. Tighter shots didn’t look much different than daytime.
Moontail Falls, Yosemite National Park, California (Kyle Jones)
So here are four different views of a Yosemite icon. I’ve enjoyed taking each one and will probably be back to try again another time.