I am told by mountaineers that the three most distinctive mountain shapes in the world are the Mustagh Tower in the Karakorams, the Matterhorn in the Alps and Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. – Ansel Adams

And, yet, this doesn’t look instantly recognizable as Half Dome. For the third love letter to Half Dome created by my 85mm f/1.8 USM lens, I picked this image, shot on Ilford FP4+ film using an orange filter to increase the contrast between the sky and the clouds. It is the back side of Half Dome, the side that makes it seem like there was a Full Dome once.

This was taken slightly above Nevada Fall, on the John Muir trail. Scott, John, Tyler and I have been climbing up Mist Trail all day and got thoroughly soaked three times – at Vernal Fall, Nevada Fall, and then again, a few yards from where this was taken, where some random snow melt endlessly dripped over the narrow trail as a never-ending cold shower.

We were tired and wet, but once we got to this side of the Nevada Fall, we realized what we were looking up at. The sheer, smooth cliff above was none other than our friend Half Dome, in a rarely seen angle. And while the fascination with its face and profile has been long documented in countless photos by masters and laymen alike, it was a surprise to see the smoothness of the dome, interrupted only by a few scars, carved by Father Time and Mother Nature.

Canon 7D, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM lens @ 40mm, CPL

As it were, I don’t have many shots from this vantage point. Day was getting long and legs weary. Some others have more interesting skies or a different composition; one of those, a digital effort, is shown here for purposes of comparison. But in the end, I chose this shot because I thought the sparse splashes of color distract from the beauty of the subject. A subject, that, quite accidentally, captured the heart of my favorite lens.