Horsetail Falls, as seen during the day, from the Southside Drive (West) location. This has a great view of the falls (you can see a lot of it) but it doesn't turn on fire like from the side angles. This spot is just too straight on and the reflection from the sunset cannot be seen bouncing back off into the water. Instead, you get some really neat red colored rocks. In this photo you can also see the shape of the falls and see why they call it "horsetail"!

Horsetail Falls, as seen from in between Southside Drive West and East locations. This has a nicer angle and shows more of the falls than the East location, however, I don't think it's possible to get El Capitan in a portrait orientation photo.

Yosemite Falls. I Liked the little bit of snow on the bottom.

While photographing Yosemite Falls we noticed this neat little trickle of waterfalls coming down the cliff face behind us.

Also while photographing Yosemite Falls we noticed that the moon was out! It completely surprised us that you could see the moon at 2pm in the afternoon!

Yosemite Falls, Valley view, with snow on the ground!

Our cameras are all setup for shooting Horsetail Falls. You can see my 2 cameras on the right here.

As the sun moves from west to east it makes different shapes in the mountain. Here you can see an elephant (the shadow makes a bit ear, then the bright spot signals the snout... seen about middle of the photo, slightly left.

As the sun sets even more the elephant dissapears and a Heart appears! Just in time for valentines day!

As we waited more photographers showed up. Here's a shot of everyone with their tripods all set and ready!

Yes, this is an obvious HDR. I thouhgt it showed a lot of really neat detail so I kept it. This is El Capitan and Horsetail Falls (which you can see as the really bright spot coming down the mountain on the right side of the image, just slightly left and above those 2 trees on the top right). I blended in the original RAW file's sky to give this a slightly more realistic look. About 30 minutes later the watefalls turn from bright white to on fire red!

Horsetail Falls lights up "on fire" 2 weeks every year. We waited for several hours for the sun to set and just as it did, some clouds rolled in and prevented the Fire Falls from starting. Luckily with about 10 minutes left in the window of "Fire Fall"ing, the clouds parted, the bottom of the falls lit up first, and then shot on up. Here you can see the progression of Fire Falls.