3 minutes

If

you ever

loved

a

mountain...

starrring: Sentinel Rock,
Yosemite Valley, California

a 3 minute vacation for you
and a love letter to nature

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the back story

about this video

It was November of 2023.

My wife Cathy and I were checking into the Yosemite Lodge. We asked for a room with the best view of the Yosemite Falls. The attentive front desk clerk was sorry to disappoint us but said the best ones were all filled.

Instead, she advised us to take a particular room with a particularly outstanding view of Sentinel Rock.

We took her advice. Oh, was she right.

Over the next few days, in all kinds of weather, at all times of day, or even at night by moon and starlight, we admired Sentinel and her dramatic profile.

On our last full day of the trip, i choose to hike the famous 4 Mile Trail, which rises from Yosemite Valley floor to Glacier Point, not realizing that the fierce but worthwhile trail ascends upwards directly under and alongside Sentinel Rock.

It was a 10 mile round trip, so i began early with a full lunch. As i walked, and as the day began and the clouds lifted, i knew that i was on a very special walk. It was as if i was on the best nature-theme-park amusement ride of life. Each turn of the trail offered yet another enchanting reveal of the rocks and domes and waterfalls of Yosemite Valley. One after another, the vistas the were unforgettable, all the while ascending alongside the ever-more-impressive Sentinel Rock.

Glacier Point, the trail’s destination, offered it’s own a profoundly satisfying 360° panorama, a worthy highpoint to the hike, not to mention a superb spot to lunch and linger before turning around.

On the descent, once more, I was in awe at vista after vista of Sentinel Rock. It began to snow, somehow with everything still bathed in sunlight, not shadow; the tiny flecks of white falling falling around me as if in designed decoration.

Truly magical.

Sentinel Rock spoke to me to whole way.

That conversation became this video, itspilled out of me as i walked.

While researching for other images, i found that many painters, authors, sketchers, and other artists had fallen in love with this same rock before me. I was in good company.

There is a wonderful photograph of Sentinel Rock by Ansel Adams, the great photographer.
I didn’t use that one.

There is a fabulous painting of snowbound Sentinel Rock by Albert Bierstadt, the famous landscape artist.

I didn’t use that one either.

But here is a thank you to those whose images i did include, roughly in order used.

James D. Smillie Engravings, from “Picturesque America” 1872-74
Carleton E. Watkins Sepia photos, ca 1875
Postcard postmarked 1939, with the scrawled message on back “Dear Folks, It is more beautiful than pictured”
William Keith Painting, 1872
William Neill Color photo, “Clearing Winter Storm, Sentinel Rock”, 2018 (used with permission)
Gary Weimberg All other photos and videos

About the format

If ever there was a video that deserved to be in vertical format, this is it. It wasn’t any clever creative design on my part and indeed a lifetime of working in horizontal made me extremely uneasy to make this choice. But … the subject matter strongly suggested in and even more importantly, i choose to NOT swim upstream against the tide of millions/billions of eyeballs.

People watch videos on their phones.

I choose to acknowledge that.

I choose to respect my audience.

So here i am … vertical film maker at last.

Seems like heresy, but … when i share a link and i watch someone instantly and comfortably watch this video on their phone i realize …

Be here now.

This is what people do.

Speak the language of the country you are in.

… and vertical seems to be visual landscape of this moment.

To my fellow film makers,

Please dont burn me at the stake for being a heretic.