Half Dome at Sunset – Yosemite National Park

This is looking across Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point. Half Dome is the large dome shaped rock to the right.

When we decided to visit California with no plans what so ever, I knew that I would have to be lucky more than anything else. I had never researched Yosemite park for best shooting locations (I actually never even thought I was going to visit Yosemite on the trip). While driving around throughout the park earlier in the day, we were lucky enough to find a hotel in the park boundaries that had rooms available. So at the last minute (a couple hours before sunset) we decided to head up to Glacier Point. It turned out to be an extraordinary sunset, mixed with what was already and incredible view. Standing there in awe of the scene before me was probably one of my favorite moments of the trip.

This is actually facing more towards the east but the clear skies to the west allowed the sun to cast beautiful colors onto the storm clouds in the east that began building in the sky just before sunset.

Details: This is a 7 exposure HDR, although it has very light processing. The scene was 100% as amazing as you see here. The only adjustments were some slight curves adjustments for contrast. The basic techniques I used to edited this photo can be found at www.sohdr.com