I started putting up images from our brief trip to New York about a month ago (i can’t really believe it’s been a month of New York but it has – or will be in 2 days). Over the course of that month i made two different trips – one to Yosemite Valley and another to Montana. Both involved snow, ice, flowing streams and photography… 4 things that didn’t appear together in New York – at least while i was there.

I’m going to start with this first image of the Merced River taken the afternoon we arrived in the valley. I’ve been there in the snow before and it can change over the course of a few hours. It will go from snowing to sunny in one afternoon and the next morning the valley will look nothing like it had the night before. I didn’t want that to happen this time so i immediately found a good location, stumbled down a steep snowy hill to the water and set up shop in about 18″ of freezing cold running river water. My boots are a few inches taller than that so i was dry as long as i didn’t move around too much. It was quite cold… By the end of it my feet were freezing and I’d nearly dropped 2 lenses into the river. I recommend it though – standing in freezing water up to your shins and not moving while you make 4 minute exposures one after another is a good way to kick off any weekend.

While i was developing film later that week i couldn’t find this roll. I had been wearing a new jacket that had really difficult pockets to use and as I’m not accustomed to being freezing cold and having to leave my camera sitting on a tripod in the middle of the running river while i change lenses i decided it had fallen out of my pocket and was gone for good. I discovered it though during a scanning session, i had merely overlooked it while i was proofing everything – so i’m relieved to present one of these lost images.