42 seconds on Half Dome; A year of Previsualization

This is the third post in a series about a recent visit to Yosemite National Park. In the first post, An hour at Tunnel View, Sean McLean and I wrapped up a quick overnight trip to Yosemite National Park. The second post, Two Hours on North Dome I dealt with the goal of hiking to North Dome before Tioga Pass Road closed for the season. This post deals with image(s) I had in mind that was my reason for wanting to do the hike to North Dome.

I started thinking about making this hike well over a year ago when I took the time to research the trails, the logistics of getting there, the scenic vantage points, and the type of photographs I wanted. Many landscape and travel photographers understand this research is part of our creative process. It’s not just about us showing up someplace, pointing a camera, clicking the shutter and hoping we get a good shot. One of the ways that we feed our creativity is by planning out the shot(s) we want to take long before we ever show up on location. It adds to the old saying that Chance Favors the Prepared. We’re trying to stack the deck in our favor.

Photo #1: (Above) Sunset light on Half Dome, from North Dome, Yosemite National Park, California (Click here to purchase a print or license. – 161023a_YOS-0645)

Previsualization is the act of forming an already completed photo in your head before it’s taken. More specifically, it’s the idea of a finished photo that floats in a nebulous construct in your brain. You think of the composition, the type of lighting, time of day, visual angles, etc, and you think to yourself, “this is the shot I want to get – so what do I need to do to make it exist?” I had a couple ideas that I nursed over 14 months. First was being on top of North Dome and taking a panorama of Half Dome and Clouds Rest as they stood above Tenaya Canyon. If all went according to plan, I also wanted to get the last bit of late season sunlight on Half Dome.

#2: Half Dome, as seen from North Dome, Yosemite National Park, California (Click here to purchase a print or license for use in publications. – 161023a_YOS-0257)

From the moment we got to North Dome, we had about an hour of sunlight dancing intermittently across Half Dome as the growing storm clouds moved in all around us. The clouds finally enveloped the sun an hour before sunset. The solid wall of gray clouds to the west meant I was pretty sure that was going to be the last sunlight I would see on the huge granite monolith. I used my time shooting a variety of single frames and multi-frame panoramas, knowing I would likely process some in color and some in Black & White.

Then, just minutes before sunset, a little trace of light began creeping up the shoulder of Half Dome. Like someone slowly waving a flashlight between a slightly-cracked door, I watched for a few brief moments as the face of Half Dome was bathed in a wash of warm sunset light.

When I got back home and looked at all my RAW image files, I checked the time stamp from when the light was first fully-on the face of Half Dome and when it was finally past peak; a total of 42 seconds. After carrying a vision in my head for well over a year, the universe decided to grace me with 42 seconds in which to capture the featured image that you see at the top of this page. I couldn’t believe my luck. After shooting every moment of that beautiful light, I turned to Sean who was about 40 yards away and yelled, “Did that really just happen?”

I also knew of the historical B&W images of Yosemite taken in the 1860’s by Carleton Watkins and William Henry Jackson after having researched these images for my book, Greetings from California. As I began processing some of my images for Black and White, I realized I was also carrying a visual influence that was created one hundred and fifty years ago, and which lingered in my mind for many years before I even considered making this hike.

And speaking of making this hike, Sean and I were both impressed to look up at the top of Half Dome just after sunset to see a person standing on the summit all alone, ten days after the cables had been taken down for the season. Now that must have been a wild adventure! Anyone know someone that hiked to the top of Half Dome on Oct. 23, 2016?

I hope you’ll enjoy this selection of the images of Half Dome from atop North Dome. If you’d like to let me know which of these images you enjoy the most, please feel free to leave a comment below.

#3: Half Dome, as seen from North Dome, Yosemite National Park, California (Click here to purchase a print or license for use in publications. – 161023a_YOS-0228)

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#4: Half Dome, as seen from North Dome, Yosemite National Park, California (Click here to purchase a print or license for use in publications. – 161023a_YOS-0313)

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#5: Panorama of Half Dome and Clouds Rest as seen from North Dome, Yosemite National Park, California (Click here to see it larger or purchase a print or license for use in publications. – 161023a_YOS-0231-0241)

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#6: Panorama of Half Dome and Clouds Rest as seen from North Dome, Yosemite National Park, California (Click here to see it larger or purchase a print or license for use in publications. – 161023a_YOS-0199-0209_Sepia)

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#7: Panorama of Half Dome and Clouds Rest as seen from North Dome, Yosemite National Park, California (Click here to see it larger or purchase a print or license for use in publications. – 161023a_YOS-0199-0209_B&W)

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#8: Storm clouds over Half Dome, as seen from North Dome, Yosemite National Park, California (Click here to purchase a print or license for use in publications. – 161023a_YOS-0574)

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#9: Half Dome, as seen from North Dome, Yosemite National Park, California (Click here to purchase a print or license for use in publications. – 161023a_YOS-0569)

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#10: Person standing on Half Dome, as seen from North Dome, Yosemite National Park, California – He’s the tiny black pixels just right of the top. (Click here to purchase a print or license for use in publications. – 161023a_YOS-0562)

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#11: Sunset light on clouds above Half Dome, as seen from North Dome, Yosemite National Park, California (Click here to purchase a print or license for use in publications. – 161023a_YOS-0681)

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#12: Panorama of clouds at sunset over Half Dome and Clouds Rest from North Dome, Yosemite National Park, California (Click here to see it larger or purchase a print or license for use in publications. – 161023a_YOS-0508-0517)

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Want to see more from Yosemite?

Check out these awesome links:

My Premier Yosemite Gallery – Pictures and Fine Art Landscape Photos of Yosemite National Park.

Great Hikes in Yosemite: Hiking to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. (Blog post)

Great Hikes in Yosemite: Hiking along the Tuolumne River. (Blog post)

* A final note about the photos in this post: All the images are made from RAW Images shot with my Nikon D800, and processed in Lightroom and Photoshop.

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Gary Crabbe is an award-winning commercial and editorial outdoor travel photographer and author based out of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. He has seven published books on California to his credit, including “Photographing California; v1-North”, which won the prestigious 2013 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Gold Medal award as Best Regional title. His client and publication credits include the National Geographic Society, the New York Times, Forbes Magazine, TIME, The North Face, Subaru, L.L. Bean, Victoria’s Secret, Sunset Magazine, The Nature Conservancy, and many more. Gary is also a photography instructor and consultant, offering both public and private photo workshops. He also works occasionally a professional freelance Photo Editor.

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