I’ve switched to Birding photography mode of late and forgot about this photo shoot until Lori Hibbett asked me about my photo.
Last year several friends and I went up to Yosemite to try to capture the Moonrise behind Half Dome, but at the 11th hour the clouds moved in and obscured the top of Half Dome and dashed our hopes of making that shot.
A few of us tried it again this year with better weather. Thanks to the brilliant calculations of our friend Rico we knew when the Moon would be rising and where, unfortunately he wasn’t able to join us for this attempt. So here’s a big shout out to Rico: THANK YOU RICO for the brain work, and for sharing your findings. Also, a shout out to Dali for driving. Thank you for getting us there and back again safely! Steven– as always your company and conversation is fun and interesting!
I’m so excited!!! After first seeing this species from afar in May 2010 on a cold morning floating with its mate on the Merced River in Yosemite I’ve been hoping to see one and be close enough to get a good photo of one within my focal range. I did see a few this past Spring, but they were too far away for me to get a good photo of one. Finally after all this time I saw 4 this past Sunday that were well within my range!!! Yes, I am doing the Happy Dance!
A group of friends from a Meet-Up group I’m in spent one night at May Lake specifically to photograph the evening and night sky. My friend Michael and I drove up together. Along the way we stopped at the Old Priest Grade Station Cafe for a late breakfast to help fuel our bodies for the hike to the Lake. Michael and I split an Egg scramble skillet loaded with goodies, and a short stack of flapjacks. The coffee was welcome and good, and the food delicious. We talked with some folks who were traveling from Maine who were visiting Yosemite for the first time. They were pressed for time and wanted to know what they should see. I suggested Tunnel View as their “do not miss” place in the park. I wish I got their email to find what they saw and how they liked the park. Hindsight is always better isn’t it. [sigh] What would you have suggested they see on very little time in the park?
We made good time from the Cafe to the May Lake turnoff and we found a great parking spot near the trail-head. While we were getting everything out of the car and ready to do the hike up to May Lake we met a lovely family from San Francisco; Regina, and Jesse with whom we chatted about backpacking, hiking, and gear. They were having lunch and getting their gear ready for the hike up while their two little ones were having nap time.
We took our time hiking up to the lake enjoying the views and talking to passersby. Regina, and Jesse with their two little ones caught up with us even. They each carried a child in their backpacks plus their camping gear! There wasn’t much further to go to reach the lake by this point.
It turned out we were first of the group to arrive, and there weren’t many backpackers at the lake so we had lots of choice spots to choose from to set up our tents.
Home Sweet Home…for the night
It was a nice flat space and moderately sheltered from the wind. It was breezy and got windy during the night I heard from Michael in the morning, but I slept through it. Michael set up behind me.
The view from my spot:
Once both Michael and I had our camps set up we did a little scouting; looking for possible sunrise and night sky locations. Here’s a look at Mount Hoffman and Hoffman Peak which rises above May Lake. The stats for May Lake are:
Elevation at trailhead: 8,710 feet (2,655 meters) May Lake Elevation: 9,270 feet (2,825 meters) Mt. Hoffmann Elevation: 10,845 feet (3,305 meters)
After the rest of the group arrived and set up their camps we headed up the May Lake trail to the granite plateaus to find a nice viewing location to shoot the sunset. Sunset was absolutely stunning (first photograph). The colors in the sky were so vivid, and beautiful, it made the hike up with its steep and gnarly trail to that plateau, and beyond for further night photography, and the treacherous return trek down in the dark of night with head-lamps, and torches of course well worth it.
I have to give a huge “SHOUT OUT!” to Enrico who set up, and coordinated this Meet-up. Without him and the group I wouldn’t have gone, as I’m not brave enough to do this alone. Thank you Enrico for setting up another terrific backpacking adventure! Here’s a photo of the group courtesy of Enrico.
Left to Right- Tulasi, Milad, Wayne, Me, Michael, Sarita, and Enrico.
Myself and 7 other members of a Meet-up group I’m in backpacked to Upper Cathedral Lake in Yosemite Wilderness. for an overnight photography adventure. It’s a 3.5 mile hike starting at 8500 ft, and topping out at 9500ft. I took my Garmin for the stats, but haven’t uploaded it yet.
My legs are dead tired after hauling my body plus 20+ pound pack up there, but it was so worth it!
It’s gorgeous up here. We lucked out it was too cool for mosquitoes. I didn’t get eaten alive at all. There were only a few other campers up here making it really enjoyable considering it was a major holiday week-end in the United States, and the valley was packed with people.
After picking a site to set up our base camp we set up our tents then grabbed our camera equipment and trekked over to the south side of the lake to shoot the sunset. We didn’t get any color in the sky as it stayed flat all afternoon and evening, but the Alpine Glow on the mountain peaks was lovely.
Yesterday myself and 3 friends went up to Yosemite National Park where we met more friends to photograph a Moonbow.
This is my first Moonbow, and my first Vertorama.
A moonbow can only happen when a full moon is shining reflected sunlight on the falls at an angle of 42º or lower, there must be water, or a mist, and it must be dark enough to see it.
There were nearly 200 people here on the little plaza and bridge to Lower Yosemite Fall last night by my quick head count in the dark. As the night wore on more people kept coming!
It was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to capturing a Moonbow over Upper Yosemite Fall in the future.
I have to thank my freind Steven Christenson for “thinking out loud” last night and saying I think I’ll try a Vertorama too.” That was a reminder to me to finally try one.
I was a bit confused on how one moves the camera up, and Steven suggested the same thing Paul does and that is tilt the camera up without moving the tripod. So that is what I did. I’m going to try more of them now that I have the first one under my belt.
This is 2 frames stitched together in CS5. I’m looking forward to capturing a Moonbow on Upper Yosemite Fall in future.
This is a very popular photo spot in Yosemite National Park,and while here to shoot the Horsetail Fall annual event we stopped here. A companion whom I drove up with had never been to Yosemite before so this was a “must see” stop for him. Even though I missed the snow in valley, I have to admit the colors, and textures here were marvelous.
I was fortunate enough to have the time free to be able to return to Yosemite for another chance of seeing Horsetail Fall light up on Thurs. Feb. 23, 2012.
This event though possible each year isn’t guaranteed. All the elements and conditions must come together to see it.
On Thurs. the sky was blue and clear. I hoped it stayed that way right up until sunset.
This trip was an encore to the trip here February 18, 2010 to see Horsetail Fall light up. I’m in several Photography related Meet-up groups and I went up with several photographers from one of these groups.
14 photographers from a Bay Area Meet-up made it this year. I rose at 12:01AM on Thurs the 23rd then dressed, ate a light snack, got my gear in the car and left at 2:30AM to meet 2 companions 30 minutes away. From there we were to car-pool to Livermore an hour away to meet several more photographers. Then we car-a-vanned to Yosemite. We arrived at our first shooting location in the park before 8 A.M.
There we started photographing in the cold 32 degree morning at Swinging Bridge. We weren’t alone. Down on the river we ran into Michael Frye and 3 of his students who also decided to get an early jump on the day.
From here we went to several well-known and wonderful spots in the park where we spied a Coyote catching a vole, and the view from Tunnel View never disappoints. Some of my companions saw and photographed a Bobcat! I’m sorry I missed that. I was in a car ahead of them and missed it completely.
Mid afternoon we made our way over to our ” secret spot” to photograph we hoped the sun hitting Horsetail Fall.
We didn’t expect anyone to be in this spot. It’s not well-known. We arrived to find it as expected empty. We fanned out and set up our cameras, tripods, trail stools, and some stretched out on the soft pine needles and took a nap.
About an hour later a lone man slowly walked by nodded and kept walking. 20 minutes later he came back with his camera and tripod.
20 minutes later out of the trees came Michael Frye and his 3 students. His face was full of surprise to find such a large group there already.
A little later another lone man emerged from the trees with his camera and tripod. There were about 20 people there by then.
Right on time the light on the cliff face began to change and the show was on. All joking and talking stopped as we jumped into action and soon all you heard was the soft beeps of camera AF motors, and shutters clicking. Once in a while I heard Michael giving his students a direction or making a comment. Then right before the color reached its peak a couple came walking up and sat down to watch the last few minutes of the phenomenon.
At the peak there was a spray of mist or perhaps evaporation that could be seen fanning out from the cliff face that added a wonderful glow to the show.
As you see there’s very little snow up there. We were really lucky this year to see this.
Because the sky was clear the whole mountain had a glow so I framed more of El Capitan to capture it. In less than 10 minutes it faded completely so it was time to pack up.
Isn’t it wonderful how something can look so different from day-to-day. My photograph taken on Tues. Feb. 21, 2012 is here.
It was a day filled with laughter, adventure, good people to hang out with, and at the end of the day Mother Nature’s light show was the Pièce de résistance.
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