Yosemite National Park, California, USA

The El Capitan fire waterfall is one of the most sights in Yosemite National Park.
The amazing view of the waterfall is created when the setting sun hits the waterfall at a specific angle. This rare sight can only be seen for 2-week period at the end of February. To capture this rare event, photographers often have to wait and spend years of patience in order to photograph it because its appearance depends on a few natural phenomena occurring at the same time.

The first step is for the waterfall to arrive. The waterfall is formed by the snow and ice melting at the top of the mountain. It starts melting in December and by the end of February there might not be much snow left to melt to form the waterfall. Second, the light has to hit the water at a specific angle. The sun’s position must be exactly right for this to happen. This occurs only in February and for the short minutes of dusk. If it is cloudy or something is obscuring the sun, the effect will not occur. When these things do go right though you can capture some spectacular photos like the ones seen here.