I was disappointed when I got to Yosemite in February to see that most of the snow in the valley had melted. So when it started to snow, I was very surprised, AND ecstatic! I was finally going to see the Winter Wonderland that I had hoped for. I was photographing from across El Capitan along the banks of the Merced River when the first snowflakes fell. It started to snow heavily but I was so excited that I stayed for a whole hour out there in the snow, and made many images like this.

I experimented with the white balance to express the coldness. And this young fir tree became one of my stories for this wintery backdrop.