Cathedral #2
by Eric Glaser
Title
Cathedral #2
Artist
Eric Glaser
Medium
Photograph - Digital Photography
Description
"Cathedral"
It had snowed a little the previous night; the temperature had yet to climb above freezing the next morning. This view from Cook’s Meadow on the valley floor shows Yosemite’s signature waterfall, Yosemite Falls, the tallest in North America (2,425 feet), in all its thundering splendor, just past sunrise one day. (In this view, the upper fall is more obvious; the middle cascades and lower fall are more hidden.) Yosemite Creek is just like any other 13 mile-long creek in the Sierra Nevada; but whether it wants to or not, whether it knows it or not, near its end it becomes these fabulous falls. It's not a bad way to go.
To me, Yosemite Valley is a freak of nature. It’s only seven miles long and less than a mile wide; but surely it must have more magnificent scenery per square foot than anywhere else on Earth. Because it was formed by glaciation, the valley walls are incredibly sheer and high, leading to these citadel-like cliffs found on the valley’s north side. Famous landscape icons are everywhere, and are so close you can almost reach out and touch them. That’s Yosemite Point just to the right (east) of the falls, another 700 feet higher; Lost Arrow as well. Half Dome is behind you, on the other (south) side; El Capitan, "The Chief" - the Big Cheese of them all - is off to the left, out of the frame, no doubt posing for pictures. On the south rim, Bridalveil Fall, looking straight out of "Lord of the Rings," is behind you on your port quarter; my favorite waterfalls, Nevada/Vernal Falls, its own embarrassment of riches, whose source is the deep and fast-flowing Merced River, are also behind you on your starboard quarter. They're all listed right there on your deed - the United States National Park deed - whose magnificent lands we as Americans all own, share, protect, and cherish. If we don't give our children anything else, we at least give them *this*.
This place is absolute heaven for waterfalls. No less than eight of them plunge into the valley from the high peaks above, including this one. Each of them are very different, with their own personalities and from very different sources. Some are seasonal, others flow year-round. They all flow into the crystal Merced River, River of Mercy, in this valley below. In this image, you can see the ice that formed overnight on the towering cliff face behind the upper fall, called frazil ice. Over the long winter, beneath that fall forms a huge conical mound of ice and snow, called the “Ice Cone” or “Snow Cone.” Sometimes it can grow to hundreds of feet tall, when sheets of ice fall off the cliff face in the midday sun and it builds up over weeks and months; you can see that here as well in that huge white icy pile.
This capture was made in late March in Yosemite Valley in California, sacred land of the Ahwahnechee, deep in a glittering mountain range of light and color like no other. It was a beautiful morning, a spectacular scene. But it was very cold; few people were out. I stood there shivering behind my camera, with it sitting atop my tripod, almost laughably trying in vain to somehow get it all in my viewfinder and figure out how best to memorialize such impossible grandeur with my trusty Zeiss 50mm lens. The conifers are always green, of course, but the deciduous trees you see on the valley floor had yet to leaf out. It was all there right in front of you; the sum total of all that is beautiful in this world, it seemed, right at that moment. For me, the roar of the falls made an already sublime scene even more epic, even biblical. God was just showing off when He made *this* place, I thought.
At the very bottom of the image, on the right, stands a man in the distance, way out in the meadow. After we exchanged pleasantries, he had slowly walked out there while I was setting up my composition. He was trying to take it all in, no doubt, just like I was. I could see that he took a few pictures. Then he stood still, with his hands clasped before him, as if meditating in a hushed cathedral. Perhaps he was praying. All was silent in that part of the valley save for the continuous roar of the life-giving falls before us, nature's own choir, right up there in the heavens. The man faced in only one direction, looking straight up, in this glorious place of benediction. And he didn't move. He didn’t move for a long time.
Image Capture: March 20, 2022
Yosemite Falls
Yosemite Point
Yosemite National Park
Sierra Nevada Mountains
California
United States
The image was made using a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV digital body, a Zeiss Milvus 50mm f/1.4 ZE lens, at f/6.3 for 1/160 second at 100 ISO.
The raw image file was processed using Adobe Lightroom, Topaz Labs' Studio, and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
Copyright © Eric Glaser. All Rights Reserved.
Uploaded
June 5th, 2022
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