Snowy mountain above salt flats, Death Valley NP, California I love winter, and I love snow. But when Claudia and I learned that our house might get two or more feet of snow during the last weekend of February we knew things might get difficult. We’ve lived in our house in Mariposa since 2005, and several times have received eight inches of snow, and once even got ten inches. Our road and driveway don’t get plowed, and feature a couple of steep hills, but with high clearance and four-wheel-drive we can get in and out with eight or ten inches of snow. But not more than that. With two feet of ..read more

Frosted cottonwood, Mono Lake, California In winter, Mono Lake sometimes gets socked in with fog. Locally it’s called “poconip” fog, though it’s more widely known in parts of the western U.S. as “pogonip” fog (an English corruption of a Paiute word). The Mono Basin can get quite cold in winter. But Mono Lake never freezes, due to its high concentrations of salt. So on cold nights relatively warm, moist air rises off the surface of the lake, meets that colder surrounding air, cools, and the moisture (water vapor) condenses into microscopic water droplets, forming a low-level cloud – in other ..read more

  For today only, the National Parks at Night folks are offering a free replay of my presentation from last year’s Night Photo Summit, called Expressive Night Photography. This presentation is all about the limitless opportunities night photography offers for creative exploration. At night, the darkness makes it easy to override what little light exists to add your own; it’s like having a dark, blank canvas to paint onto. And you can find more varieties of natural light at night than during the day, opening up further creative possibilities. In this presentation I explore the many creati ..read more

Mist, snow, and Bridalveil Fall, Yosemite NP, California We had quite a series of storms in late December and early January. The Sierra foothills, where I live, didn’t suffer major flooding or mudslides, but there were lots of downed trees, power outages, and some washed-out roads. Some nearby towns in the Central Valley, however, got some of the worst flooding in California. That includes Merced, which is about an hour’s drive from us, and Planada, a small town we regularly pass through on the way to Merced. The entire town of Planada was evacuated for two days earlier this month due to flo ..read more

  I’m happy to be joining the National Parks at Night team for the third annual Night Photo Summit next month! This will be my third time presenting at the Night Photo Summit, and the previous two have been really fun, so I’m excited to be invited back! This online conference is devoted exclusively to night photography, and I’ll be joining over 35 other distinguished instructors, including Albert Dros, Elia Locardi, Royce Bair, Rachel Jones Ross, Katrina Brown, Lance Keimig, Tim Cooper, Susan Magnano, Chris Nicholson, Kevin Adams, and many more. I’ll be presenting Reducing Noise With Sta ..read more

Sunbeams, mist, Half Dome, and the Merced River, Yosemite National Park, California Just a reminder that next Monday I’ll be doing a presentation about Lightroom Masking for Nature Photography Classes as part of of their Winter Speaker Series. (That’s Monday, January 16th, at 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time.) This winter series also includes online presentations by David Kingham, Nick Page, and Sean Bagshaw – all focused on image processing. You can sign up for these talks individually for $27 each, or register for all four speakers for $87 (which seems like a great bargain). And 10% of the proceeds ..read more

The votes are all in and counted, and here are my top photographs of 2022! We had a great response this year: 672 people looked through my initial selection of 42 images and voted for their favorites. That’s the second-highest total ever! (The most was 728 votes in 2016; I’ve been doing this every year since 2010.) A big thank you to everyone who took the time to look through these photographs and voice your opinions! I also really appreciate the kind words so many people posted in the comments or sent by email. I wish I could respond to everyone, but please know that I’ve read them all and am ..read more

Curves at dusk, Death Valley NP, California Just a reminder that this is the last day to cast your votes for my best photographs of 2022. You have until midnight! Again, please don’t send your votes to me by email, or post them in the comments, or they won’t be counted. Use the form at the end of the original post to cast your votes. Click here to see the nominees and cast your vote. Thanks to everyone who already voted! I appreciate your help. ? — Michael Frye Related Posts: My Best Images of 2022: the Nominees; My Top Photographs of 2021; My Top Photographs of 2020; My Top Photographs of 2 ..read more

Moonlit clouds over El Capitan, Yosemite While snow is rare at our house in the Sierra foothills, Yosemite Valley has received a few early-winter snowstorms, so Claudia and I have been able to go up there and enjoy the snow on several occasions, which is always a treat. To me, the holidays always feel more festive with snow. I made this photograph of El Capitan after one of those storms, as the setting moon lit El Capitan and the fast-moving clouds overhead. For many people in North America, however, things probably seem a bit too wintry. It’s one thing to watch snowflakes floating gently ..read more

Cottonwoods in late-afternoon light, Yosemite NP, California We’ve had a great start to the winter here in the Sierra, with several early-December storms bringing rain and higher-elevation snow. Precipitation is above average for Yosemite Valley at this point, which is wonderful. Some other recent winters have also gotten off to a strong start only to fizzle in January and February, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed that this winter will be different. This winter’s early-season storms have been on the cold side, cold enough to bring snow to Yosemite Valley several times. The most recent stor ..read more