El Capitan, Winter Sunrise

More About the Image:
 

According to Ansel, ‘getting up at dawn on a winter morning and driving around Yosemite in search of photographs is a chilly but wonderful experience.’ (E pg. 45)  On this day in 1968, Ansel found the snow quite unforgiving as he tried to set up his tripod, the depth preventing him from getting a good footing.  Eventually finding success, he loaded his camera first with Tri-X, before switching to Polaroid Type 55 P/N.  The weather was proving challenging as ‘the clouds were swift-moving, and [he] made a series of exposures.  There is no way one can anticipate accurately the positions of such wreathing vapors; one situation appears worthy of an exposure – and then appears another situation that seems even better.’ (E pg. 45)  Attempting but ultimately failing to process the Polaroid negatives in his car due to the extreme cold, Ansel made his way to his Yosemite darkroom and more ‘favorable conditions.’ (E pg. 46)  Of the several negatives he made that day, this one proved most magnificent.  To that point, it would become perhaps his last great masterpiece, and featured in his penultimate published collection, Portfolio 7.  In the foreword to that collection, Ansel wrote, ‘I hope that my work will encourage self-expression in others and stimulate the search for beauty and creative excitement in the great world around us.’  (P pg. undesignated)