First time visiting Fire Falls

This year I was trying to photograph the Horsetail Falls in Yosemite National Park. Each year — if you’re lucky — for a few days in late February, the Horsetail Falls located on the eastern edge of famous El Capitan, look like floating lava in the last rays of sun. This occurs only, when three events come together: a perfect amount of snowfall in the area, followed by temperatures high enough to melt a good amount of snow to feed the waterfall and a precise beam of light from the setting sun, preferably in the last five minutes before sunset.

Arriving too late in the afternoon on my first day I just made it to photograph El Capitan with the golden late afternoon light on its walls, which is a good combination with the snowy trees already in the shadow.

The next day was totally sunny with a good amount of snow in the valley. It made it a good opportunity to enjoy the Yosemite Valley and to visit its icy waterfalls.

Finally I arrived at the Fire Falls. Inspired by so many photos in the web they looked a little disappointing in the beginning in late afternoon. I just thought they would be taller and not so far away just on top of El Capitan. But the closer you’ll get towards the sunset the more beautiful they are. Unfortunately clouds started to cover the sun while the whole day was so sunny. So I missed the last decisive 10 minutes but even then it was a wonderful moment.