One winter afternoon at Tunnel View I saw a puff of mist rise from the valley floor. As I watched, the mist thickened to a fog and spread, gradually expanding and rising. After about ten minutes it had grown into a fog bank that stretched as high as El Capitan, completely obliterating the view.

A number of other photographers witnessed this with me. With the scene reduced to a gray memory, someone uttered, “Show’s over,” and started packing to leave. Others soon followed. But I knew better. Not five minutes after the last photographer had left, the fog started to diminish and over the next fifteen minutes I watched Yosemite Valley slowly emerge from top to bottom.

One constant in Yosemite is the changeability of the weather—the cliché “If you don’t like the weather, wait ten minutes” certainly applies here. I’ve seen the sky go from completely blue to completely gray as many as three times in one day. Of course weather conditions aren’t always so fickle, but the key to photographing Yosemite is being present when those changes occur.

The ultimate weather change in Yosemite is a clearing storm. Tunnel View is a great place to wait for a storm to clear, because you have the entire valley right before your eyes. At Tunnel View you get a bird’s eye view of the clouds forming and dissipating, often appearing to be manufactured and distributed by El Capitan and Half Dome themselves.

Another reason to be at Tunnel View when it’s storming is that weather in Yosemite moves from west to east, and Tunnel View is the valley’s west-most location—if a storm is going to clear, it will clear first at Tunnel View. Of course there are other places in Yosemite Valley to be when storms clear—pretty much any location with a view of El Capitan (such as Tunnel View, Valley View, Cathedral Beach, and El Capitan Meadow) or Half Dome (such as Sentinel Bridge and Cook’s Meadow) are great.

But what about those days when conditions are static—either clear blue or flat gray? Don’t despair, there are still options. When skies are clear, I head to Fern Spring and Bridalveil Creek. Both of these spots have plenty of shade and ample close subjects. If it’s early morning or late afternoon, I start thinking about rainbows—Yosemite Falls in the morning, Bridalveil or Vernal Falls in the afternoon.

When skies are gray I search for compositions that exclude the sky. This is a good time to venture to the redwood groves, or back to Fern Spring and Bridalveil Creek. Waterfalls also make great gray sky subjects if you compose selectively. Eliminate the sky by isolating a portion of the waterfall with your telephoto. It’s also fun to compose river scenes that exclude the sky. And gray skies are ideal for slow-shutter milky water effects.

The next time you're in Yosemite, tune-in to the conditions and plan your shots accordingly. For the aware photographer there are always pictures to be had in Yosemite, weather or not.

© Gary Hart