A rare sight!! Yosemite National Park, California , USA
This park was gazetted as a national park in 1890. It is world famous for
its rugged terrain, waterfall and century-old pine trees. It covers 1200 sq
km and the "fire" waterfall of El Capitan is one of the most spectacular of
all scenery.
The spectacular view of the waterfall is created by the
reflection of sunlight hitting the falling water at a specific angle.
This rare sight can only be seen at a 2-week period towards the end of February.
To photograph this rare event, photographers would often have to wait and
endure years of patience in order to capture them.
The reason is because its appearance depend on a few natural phenomenons
occurring at the same time. 1st, is the formation of the waterfall - The
water is formed by the melting of snow and ice at the top of the mountain.
It melts between the month of December and January and by the end of
February there might not have much snow left to melt. 2nd, is the specific
angle of the sunray hitting the falling water - The sun's position must be
exactly at a particular spot in the sky. This occurs only in the month of
February and at the short hours of dusk. If it is a day full of clouds or
something blocking the sun, you can only take pictures of your own sorry
faces on the waterfall.
It coincides with the fact that the weather in the National Park
at that time of the year is often volatile and unpredictable. It compounds
the difficulty of getting these pictures.
This park was gazetted as a national park in 1890. It is world famous for
its rugged terrain, waterfall and century-old pine trees. It covers 1200 sq
km and the "fire" waterfall of El Capitan is one of the most spectacular of
all scenery.
The spectacular view of the waterfall is created by the
reflection of sunlight hitting the falling water at a specific angle.
This rare sight can only be seen at a 2-week period towards the end of February.
To photograph this rare event, photographers would often have to wait and
endure years of patience in order to capture them.
The reason is because its appearance depend on a few natural phenomenons
occurring at the same time. 1st, is the formation of the waterfall - The
water is formed by the melting of snow and ice at the top of the mountain.
It melts between the month of December and January and by the end of
February there might not have much snow left to melt. 2nd, is the specific
angle of the sunray hitting the falling water - The sun's position must be
exactly at a particular spot in the sky. This occurs only in the month of
February and at the short hours of dusk. If it is a day full of clouds or
something blocking the sun, you can only take pictures of your own sorry
faces on the waterfall.
It coincides with the fact that the weather in the National Park
at that time of the year is often volatile and unpredictable. It compounds
the difficulty of getting these pictures.