A lone coyote darts through a snowy meadow, disappearing into the mist enshrouding a grove of cedars. Icicles sparkle from the mossy trunks of massive pine trees. Snow drifts and waterfalls tumble down the faces of majestic granite monoliths.
No matter how many times you have been to the jewel of the National Park System that is Yosemite, you haven’t really seen it until you’ve glimpsed it over freshly fallen snow. Amid the solitude of winter, when snow blankets Half Dome, skaters zip around the ice rink at Curry Village and a hush of beauty and calm beckons, it’s the perfect time for the artsy among us to descend on Yosemite. It’s now, when the throngs of summer are a distant memory, that the majesty of the place, from the roar of Yosemite Falls to the elegant white peaks of Glacier Point, sparkles more brightly than ever before.
That’s true even when those dainty ivory snowflakes suddenly turn into a bone-chilling rain, as you’re tromping through Yosemite Village behind one of the guides from the Ansel Adams Gallery, which offers free camera walks several mornings a week. Shooting in snow can be magical, the radiant light revealing the glamour of the natural world and making it easy to see why Adams looked through his camera lens and saw art, where others only spied rivers, rocks and trees. These camera walks are the perfect start for an art lover’s whirl through Yosemite in winter.
Wielding your iPhone in a torrential downpour is another matter entirely (let’s just say a bag of rice comes in handy), but getting to see the valley floor through the eyes of the photographers who walk in Adams’ footsteps is priceless. The gallery’s photographers all know the history of the park as well as the science of photography. So the camera walk is a chance to look beyond the surface of things.
“When you first get here, it can be overwhelming,” said Evan Russel, curator of the gallery. “It’s hard to focus the shot, because everywhere you look, there is a photograph waiting to be taken. That’s Yosemite.”
Certainly my guide, Christine Loberg, moves fast, stashing her camera inside her parka and nimbly scampering over sheets of ice like a deer as we students scurry in her wake. She’s been capturing Yosemite on film for 30 years, but she still jumps with joy when she discovers a particularly fluorescent patch of lichen creeping up the side of the tree.
“The trees are like ballerinas today,” she said. “They’re dancing in the fog.”
Like Adams, she sees the sublime in the natural, the wonder in the way the mountains seem to vanish in the fog, the whimsy of pine cones winding through the icy waters near the site of John Muir’s cabin. She advises iPhone shooters to concentrate on contrasts, the play of light and texture in an image.
So entrancing is the craft that you might not notice the frost nipping at your fingers and the slush trickling into your hiking boots. Sometimes getting the perfect shot demands a sacrifice. It’s a small price to pay for a morning of feeling like you have a private audience with nature.
For the record, the gallery’s shutterbugs are a hardy lot, eagerly leading tours in rain and wind and snow, willing to hold their ground in the face of a snarling winter storm. Come bundled up — and be prepared to take your time to find the perfect tableau.
“If you want to get that amazing storm shot, you have to be out in the storm waiting for it. That’s how Ansel got those shots,” Russel said. “You have to be there in the moment. If you are inside somewhere waiting, you will miss it.”
Yosemite camera walks
The Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite National Park offers free camera walks led by staff photographers several mornings a week. Find details at www.anseladams.com/camera-walk.
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