Story Behind The Image-Half Dome At Sunset

The young boy sat next to his father at the Glacier Point Overlook. He looked bored and obviously didn't want to be there as his father set up his tripod and camera. The boy shuffled and complained, whined and sulked, while the minutes ticked by and the sun slowly sank down to the horizon. I walked past the pair and headed further away from the viewpoint to escape the crush of photographers and visitors waiting for the evening show.

It was going to be great light that evening. I could feel it inside of me.  I can never explain how I know. Intuition, that crazy combination of experience and luck, has lead to some of my best images in the past and I hoped it would prove true that evening. The cracks is the clouds allowed colored rays to shoot across the sky and illuminate the mountain tops. The next five minutes gave me some of the best sunset light the Sierra Nevada could provide. The rocks glowed with gold, then yellow, then orange, and finally red. The show ended with the highest and furthest peaks bathed in a surreal purplish haze of alpenglow.

The entire experience lasted about twenty minutes and I shot over 12 rolls of film during that time. I had never before, nor since, changed rolls so quickly, barely taking the time to stuff the film back into the canisters. After it was over, I slowly made my way back to my truck and passed the man and the young boy again. This time the man was trying to get the child to move and the boy was planted firmly on a rock, not wanting to budge an inch. He turned to his father and pleaded, "just one more minute Dad. I want to see if the mountains will change color again." The father sat down next to the boy and they stared out into the darkening sky. I thought to myself as I opened the door to my truck, "I couldn't have said it better myself."