Awesome Natural Light Show Featured

Is it just a coincidence? A beam of light hits a waterfall
for a few days a year, making it glow like lava.

Illustra Media knows how to put the “awe” in awesome with its beautiful films about wonders of nature. Their latest short film is not about a biological wonder like a hummingbird or butterfly, but a remarkable concurrence of independent factors that converge into a stunning natural light show. Watch it here: “Let the Fire Fall!”

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There’s a backstory to this film. In February 2022, Illustra asked me to try to get footage of the firefall and, more important for their needs, reactions of the crowds. I took off with five cameras but was blocked by two routes due to a recent heavy snow and had to take a long detour. When I finally arrived at my hotel and caught some sleep, I had a full day ahead to work on the assignment. Unfortunately, it was a drought year and Horsetail Fall was not big, even though the recent snowstorm offered some promise.

I filmed some daytime views of Horsetail Fall and scouted around the best angles before the park closed some of the roads at noon for crowd control because of the popular firefall event. Then I staked out my filming spot, a mile walk from the parking area, and hoped for the best. The apparition at prime time, however, was not ideal, and so the crowd reaction was not very enthusiastic. You can see some of the clips I shot here on Flickr.

There was another opportunity in February 2023, but the park was mostly closed due to record snowfall that surprised everyone after years of drought. A few lucky photographers caught the apparition on one day, but most of the other days during the window of opportunity were clouded out. Illustra decided it was not worth trying. They found some of the very best video clips from others to use in the finished product.

Some brief moments of my footage appear in the film, but my attempt demonstrates what a rare combination of factors must all come together at the right moment to make this light show possible. I hope the message of Illustra’s beautiful product shines through regardless, and that you can sense the awe not only of the firefall, but of this entire planet of wonders.