In the Moment:
Michael Frye's Landscape Photography Blog

A Memorable New Year’s Eve

Three Brothers reflected in the Merced River on a moonlit night, Yosemite NP, CA, USA

Three Brothers reflected in the Merced River on a moonlit night, Yosemite NP, CA, USA



It was 1985 — I think. My fiancé Claudia and I had started working at The Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite Valley in September. On New Year’s Eve it snowed, but after dark the storm broke, and a full moon appeared through rifts in the clouds.

Someone suggested going cross-country skiing in the moonlight. With a few co-workers from the gallery and other valley friends we gathered our ski equipment and headed out to the Ahwahnee Meadow. There were nine of us altogether (I only know that because a snapshot of the group has survived). Most of the group weren’t experienced skiers, and I remember a lot of flailing and falling while we were trying to cross a ditch in the meadow.

Then someone had the brilliant idea of skiing to Mirror Lake, about two miles away. In our youthful exuberance and folly we all thought this sounded great. We skied out past the Ahwahnee Hotel and along the old roads that lead to the lake. At one point Claudia, myself, and a few others got behind the rest of the group, only to be ambushed by snowballs as we entered a stand of trees.

We eventually made it to Mirror Lake around midnight. None of us thought to bring any champagne, but it didn’t matter — we were quite happy anyway, and thought it was a fitting way to greet the new year.

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Merry Christmas!

Ponderosa pines at sunset after a snowstorm, Yosemite NP, CA, USA

Ponderosa pines at sunset after a snowstorm, Yosemite NP, CA, USA



Claudia and I are visiting family in southern California. It’s raining outside while we play Scrabble and Taboo and watch movies. I hope all of you are warm and safe, enjoying the beauty of the season and the company of family and friends. To all who celebrate it, I wish you a very Merry Christmas!

— Michael Frye

Photo Critique Series: Visual Flow in a Photograph of Half Dome

"Winter Mist Rising Beneath Half Dome," by Vaibhav Tripathi

“Winter Mist Rising Beneath Half Dome,” by Vaibhav Tripathi


Here’s another long-awaited installment in my photo critique series. This time we’ll look at a photograph by Vaibhav Tripathi called “Winter Mist Rising Beneath Half Dome,” from my home territory, Yosemite National Park. It’s an interesting study in composition, and directing the viewer’s eye.

Light and Weather

The light is soft — no direct sunlight anywhere. Soft light is great for intimate scenes, but big, sweeping landscapes like this usually need sunlight to create contrast and keep the photograph from looking flat. Yet there’s actually a beautiful quality to the light here. This was made at dusk, and there’s a hint of alpenglow illuminating Half Dome, some blue in the sky, and of course the mist in the middle ground. The upper half of the photograph in particular has a luminous quality, and there’s a quiet, misty, mystical mood to the image. I also like the subtle hues and the warm-cool color contrast.

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Winter Exhibit at The Ansel Adams Gallery

Clearing storm, dusk, Tunnel View, Yosemite

Clearing storm, dusk, Tunnel View, Yosemite


I’m pleased to announce that The Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite will be presenting an exhibition of my photographs from January 6th to March 2nd, 2013. The show will be titled “Yosemite Meditations,” and will feature new work and some of my classic Yosemite images.

There will be a reception at the Gallery on Saturday, February 16th from noon to 2:00 p.m. — early enough for photographers to attend the reception and still have time to photograph Horsetail Fall afterward. I hope to see some of you there — mark the date on your calendar!

— Michael Frye

A Familiar Sound Returns to Yosemite Valley

Upper and lower Yosemite Falls with a rainbow

Upper and lower Yosemite Falls with a rainbow



For 20 years my wife Claudia and I lived in Yosemite Village, right underneath Yosemite Falls. In spring, when full from snowmelt, the roar from the fifth-highest waterfall in the world was the background music to our life in Yosemite Valley.

In late summer and autumn Yosemite Falls diminishes, sometimes dwindling to a wet stain on the cliff below Yosemite Point. This year it dried up even earlier than usual, a casualty of last winter’s meager snowfall.

But last week a series of warm, wet storms soaked northern California. Yosemite Valley received almost seven inches of rain between Wednesday morning and Sunday evening. Yesterday, after the storms finally departed, I drove up to Yosemite Valley, stepped out of my car at Swinging Bridge, and heard that familiar sound: the rumble of Yosemite Falls. It’s back, and so are all the other waterfalls in the Valley. It seemed more like May than December, except that the grasses were brown, and the trees were mostly bare with lingering splashes of fall color.

One of Yosemite’s photographic ironies is that in spring, when the thunder of Yosemite Falls rattles windows in Yosemite Village, the sun only hits the fall during the middle of the day. In winter the sun strikes the upper fall with beautiful, warm, low-angle light shortly after sunrise. You can even see rainbows from the right spot. But of course the flow is usually low during these colder months — except, that is, when heavy, warm rains fall, like they did last week.

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