In monochrome, El Capitan above the Merced loses its color and gains something else — a tonal gravity that makes 3,000 feet of granite feel like it has weight beyond measure. Greg titled this image "Appareo II," from the Latin for "to appear" — the wall emerging from cold winter light as something between geological fact and apparition. The reflection in the Merced is slightly imperfect, as still-water Yosemite reflections always are: a breath of current, a single ripple, the suggestion that even stone-still water is alive. Shot in the same conditions as the winter Valley View images — cold enough to slow shutter response and require deliberate, patient operation.