Tunnel view, Yosemite Valley

For any California photographer, Yosemite is the OG. Every inch of the valley has been photographed in such excruciating detail, I doubt I can make any innovative compositions here, hence my tendency to stay away from the valley. The insane crowds of the summer don't help as well. However every winter, as the crowds thin out I am tempted to visit the valley again. I didn't have any plans this presidents day long weekend, I checked the weather and saw a clearing for Sunday morning. The previous storm cleared out on Saturday afternoon and the next one was starting Sunday evening. So Sunday morning and afternoon was going to be bright and sunny. This was a great opportunity. So I convinced my son to join me (albeit with some bribes of pies and ice cream) and we headed out from the bay area at 2.30 on a Sunday morning. The drive was mostly uneventful and in the dark. Once we entered the park, there was a fair amount of snow by the side of the roads (but none on the actual road), the ice was fairly crusty on the roads and we were lucky that it was not worse. I neglected to bring snow chains, it could have been messy if there was more ice/snow on the road. We arrived in Tunnel view at 6.30am and in typical Yosemite fashion the parking lot was chock full. I parked in one of the corners of the parking lot (with the stripes that say no parking) and resigned myself to a ticket, after driving four hours through the night I was not going to be denied an opportunity to photograph from tunnel view.

Tunnel view was as beautiful as it has always been at sunrise. The fog poured through the valley as the sheer rock face of El Capitan and the Half Dome were sprinkled in the early morning light. The light was fairly flat and didn't see any shafts of light hit the rock faces. However it was still very beautiful. I setup my rig and used the Canon 24-70 lens to capture the entire vista in front of me. I made some compositions with the trees with the foreground and some with just the valley. Once I was satisfied I pulled out my Canon 100-400 and shot some zoomed compositions of the fog in the valley. As I was shooting it dawned on me that this vista looked essentially the same when John Muir came exploring through this valley in the the late 1800's, a wave of gratitude swept over me and I was thankful for the visionaries of the previous generation like John Muir and Ansel Adams, that I can see this scene in all its original glory.

In about 45 minutes after sunrise, the fog was mostly dissipated and the valley was bathed in sunlight. At this point we drove down from Tunnel view and drove around in a loop in the valley. We started off in the South drive and then went to the North drive. I saw some beautiful fog among the trees and wanted to stop and photograph, however my son was tired and hungry from a night of not sleeping well. So discretion being the better part of valor, I decided to take care of my first born and stopped in the valley for coffee and breakfast. By the time we hit the road again, the fog was mostly dissipated and the opportunity was lost. However I have mentally noted the spots and will be back again the winter to spend more time in one of my most favorite places in the world!