Edge of the Light - Yosemite Valley. Yosemite National Park, California. October 31, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell - all rights reserved.



Late afternoon autumn light falls across a grove of trees on the Merced River with the cliffs of Yosemite Fall beyond.



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On the weekend of October 31 and November 1 I made my annual "Yosemite Valley Fall Color" trip to The Valley - to photograph autumn subjects including the maple, dogwood, oak, and cottonwood trees. While some say that these trees may not provide the same kind of color found in New England, they still draw me back to the Valley every autumn.



This photograph was made in one of the busiest and most popular tourist viewpoints in the Valley, in Leidig Meadow near the chapel. On a busy high season day, perhaps hundred of people will briefly park their cars here, get out, point their cameras up, and make (another) photograph of Yosemite Falls. In some ways this sounds like just about that last place that I would want to photography, but I've come to like the late afternoon light in this meadow, especially