• Plato.

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One of the main challenges of planning a trip to Yosemite Valley is efficiently managing your time to cover the multitude of photo opportunities at this park. You have this fear of missing out while at already famous and well-established locations. I have always felt that every single viewpoint of the valley deserves the best possible light. The problem with the best light approach is that you will probably need a year to cover all the excellent photographic opportunities at Yosemite. Plus, Yosemite Valley is one place where the mood and beauty of a location drastically change in different weather conditions. Every time you visit, it is not easy to forego a site you already photographed instead of something new.

Hanging Valley viewpoint is a location that has the unfortunate luck of being close to Valley view. Often photographers pass this viewpoint in their hurry to get to the valley view and secure a parking spot. Also, the parking lot for this spot is tiny. Another trouble is Yosemite’s one-way traffic policy making it almost impossible to get to this location after shooting sunrise at valley view as you will have to complete the whole drive to get back here.

During our visit to the valley in the winter of 2015, I managed to secure a parking spot at the Hanging Valley viewpoint just before the sunset. The light had some great warm tones, and the Cathedral Rocks were being spot lighted with the best kind of side lighting. I included the Merced river as the foreground for the image and took a quick panorama image of the mountain peaks. As luck would have it, some low-lying clouds in front of the rock cliff give the picture a little x-factor along with the golden light.