Yosemite Valley, California
“It was like lying in a giant cathedral far vaster and more beautiful than any built by the hand of man.”
Teddy Roosevelt-on camping in Yosemite 1903
“It is by far the grandest of all the special temples of Nature I was ever permitted to enter.”
John Muir 1912
“There are no forms in nature. Nature is a vast, chaotic collection of shapes. You as an artist create configurations out of chaos. You make a formal statement where there was none to begin with. All art is a combination of an external event and an internal event… I make a photograph to give you the equivalent of what I felt. Equivalent is still the best word.”
Ansel Adams
Yosemite is a highly personal experience that touches everyone in different ways. My experience in Yosemite is one of feeling in awe by the grand majesty of giant granite walls carved by glaciers 85 million years ago.
After overcoming the powerful impact of the place, no matter how many times you have been there, each visit is completely different and you begin to see deeper into the subtle and smaller beauty that exists in different forms at different times of year.
My personal favorite is winter time with storm conditions. Intimacy with the valley in winter is easy to feel with the stillness and quiet blanket of white snow absorbing the sounds of nature.
Occasionally while I was hiking in the snow, along creeks and streams while photographing beautiful scenes, the silence would be broken by the sound of massive sheets of ice on the face of Yosemite Falls falling to the rocks below as morning light slowly melted the ice.
Walking along the Merced River through the western valley was always special on early winter mornings when the fog and mist from the water would create otherworldly scenes.
Yosemite is a place where you are humbled to be able to experience it.
