Yosemite, Lower Falls Moonbow in June 23-24, 2024, from bridge and "the wall"

Here's an image of Yosemite's moonbow in the lower falls as viewed from the bridge over Yosemite Creek. Moonlight tends to make soft shadows and a less sharp photo. Here's the link to our YouTube video: What is a Moonbow? - https://youtu.be/S_ay06ZPjqA

ISO 3200, f4, 60 seconds

And this is an image of the moonbow in the Lower Falls of Yosemite from straight on. You can even see some of the Upper Falls at the top of the frame, along with some stars. We were up well past 3am getting these moonbow images. There is a predicted time online for viewing it from the bridge, but we found that moving to a different perspective allowed for much more time to view the moonbow. Most of the other photographers there that night had already left after the predicted time ended, but we kept at it and that action paid off.

ISO 3200, f8, 50 seconds

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

 

Poor-Will resting on a granite boulder, Carson-Iceberg Wilderness

 

While backpacking in the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness, Rick went from his campsite to a stream to filter some water for the night and along the way saw this bird hanging out on a granite boulder. At first he saw the reddish eye-shine but didn't know what it was. When he brought his flashlight up in addition to the headlight, he saw that it was a bird of some kind. As he approached it, the bird didn't move. So Rick walked past it to get to the stream and filtered water. When he walked back toward his campsite, the bird hadn't moved, so he told it he'd come back with a camera. When he returned, it still hadn't moved so he was able to get this class image of a poor-will. Poor-will, related to the whip-poor-will, hunts at dawn and dusk catching flying insects. The whisker-like feathers on either side of its mouth allow it to tell when it's made contact with the insect so it can turn its head and snatch the prey item out of the air.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Nearly full moon rising next to Half Dome, viewed from North Dome, July 11, 2014

After hiking about 4 and a half miles from Porcupine Flat to North Dome, I waited for the sun to set and the moon to rise. July 11th was the day before the full moon, so the scenery would still be lit by the sun, or at least still be bright, as the moon was rising. I had to reposition myself around North Dome until I saw the moon lined up the way I wanted it. I hoped to see the moon between Half Dome and the smaller high point to its left, called Sub Dome. Fortunately, that worked out. Then I hiked back out from 9PM to 11PM.

Getting the exposure on the moon and the landscape in the same image is very difficult. The moon at this phase is very bright, so a setting that properly exposes the landscape results in a washed-out moon. Properly exposing the moon results in a dark landscape with no detail. To solve this problem, you can take two images, one exposed for the landscape and the other exposed for the moon, then combine the moon from the one image into the washed-out moon in the other.

While atop North Dome, I decided to take a selfie with my smart phone as proof that I was there.

Richard Robinson standing on the highest point of North Dome with Half Dome over his shoulder.

The picture shown below is the bench mark for the highest point of North Dome, at 7531 feet elevation. On topographic maps, you'll see these labeled as BM and a plus sign or crosshair on the map, so that when you see this marker on the land and find that mark on the map, you know exactly where you are.

Remember it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Sentinel Point, in Yosemite National Park, at sunset.

Sentinel Point towers over the south rim of Yosemite Valley. Not as famous as other features, like El Capitan or Half Dome, it can still offer some spectacular views. This image was taken as the sun was setting and Rick was looking for Horsetail Falls to the west of El Capitan picnic area. After gazing westward at the falls, Rick looked east and was surprised to see the moon rising near Sentinel Point, which is the left-most point of rock in this photo. The image was taken in February as the setting sun reflects from El Capitan's east flank, which only happens in November and February, each year. Because this was in February, you can see some  patches of snow on the cliff.

So many people know about Horsetail Falls glowing red from the setting sun in February, that the Park Service has started closing off one lane for parking, so all the photographers can park and be close to the waterfall feature. We've tried several times to get Horsetail Falls lit up by the setting sun in February, but there are other features around Yosemite to keep an eye out for, so don't fixate on one thing to the exclusion of others.

Remember, it's not just a photo, it's a story!

Yosemite Falls, upper and lower, with a lunar rainbow, or moonbow, with stars.

The mist from Yosemite Falls can turn moonlight into a moonbow, or lunar rainbow, around the time of the full moon. It also depends on how much precipitation the area had during the winter and sping, since the misting water droplets coming off the falls is what separates the white light into the spectrum of colors. The moon-caused bow is dim enough that human eyes can't distinguish the colors. We have rods and cones in our eyes, cells that respond to light. The rods respond to brightness and don't detect color, but the cones do respond to color, but only if their light has enough intensity. Moonlight isn't usually intense enough to trigger the cones. When looking at this moonbow, we only saw an arc of ghostly white light, but the camera's time exposure, 30 seconds, does pick up the colors that our eyes can't see.

This perspective also includes the upper falls and stars so that it's easier to tell that it was taken at night. To get here, you have to be willing to do a little scrambling off of the paved path over granite that is sometimes slick, right up to the base of the cliffs, but it's well worth it. You also should bring along a dry cloth to wipe the droplets off of your lens, since it will get wet. Wearing rain gear to keep yourself dry and protected from the wind is a good idea, too. Waterfalls create their wind. The falling water drags air down with it. 

This image was two shots, lower and upper, then merged together to create one larger image. The two were taken on June 2, 2012. We tried again this year, 2013, but last year's results were better.

Remember, it's not just a photo, it's a story!

Point Reyes Lighthouse lit up at dusk

Our first backpacking trip was in Point Reyes National Seashore along the coast north of San Francisco, California.  The centerpiece of this National Park Service unit is the historic Point Reyes Lighthouse, constructed at the very end of the point stretching about 10 miles out into the Pacific Ocean. Once a month from spring to fall, the park leads visitors on hikes to light the historic lighthouse. It was also on our first time out to see the lighthouse that we saw a gray whale for the first time. It was in the surf approaching Point Reyes Beach in water shallow enough that we could see the entire animal.

The lighthouse was first operated in 1870, and was built after a level spot was blasted with dynamite, about 300 feet from the top of the cliff. It uses a rotating Fresnel lens that concentrated the center light source into 24 beams such that someone in a ship off-shore would see a flash every 5 seconds. Each lighthouse has its own distinct flash pattern, so a ship's captain would be able to identify which lighthouse he's seeing.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Half Dome and a nearly full moon rising in the notch, Yosemite

Ansel Adams had a classic Half Dome with a nearly full moon shot that he took in 1960. He was a master at bringing out the details in a photographs bright parts, called highlights, and the dark parts, called shadows. The parts of a picture that are between the highlights and shadows are called midtones. Ansel Adams' shot was also done as a vertical, with just the edge of the north side cliff showing along the edge of the frame.

Having been to the top of Half Dome 3 times, we wanted to a get a similar shot, but with one improvement. Before climbing up the cables to the top of Half Dome, you have to go over a smaller feature referred to as the Sub Dome, then you drop into a saddle to arrive at the base of the cables. From Ahwahnee Meadow, you can see the Sub Dome to the left of Half Dome and the saddle between them forms a notch. We've thought for some time that a potentially better Half Dome and moon shot would have the moon rising up out of the notch. In March of 2010, we went to Yosemite with rainbows in Yosemite Falls and moon next to Half Dome shots in mind. It was on that trip that we captured the image above, which was done as a horizontal shot. It turns out that we were standing in almost the same spot in Ahwahnee Meadow where Ansel Adams stood when he took his photo in 1960.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Yosemite Falls double moonbow

If you arrive in Yosemite in spring and early summer and around the time of the full moon, you might want to hike to Yosemite Falls and view a moonbow, or lunar rainbow or a waterfall mistbow. A moonbow is a rainbow caused by moon light, rather than direct sunlight. When viewing this phenomenon, your own eyes can't see the color of the spectrum showing through the mist of the water, but when you take a long exposure, 20 to 30 seconds, with your camera, the colors appear in the final image. The night of the full moon is the brightest, but up to 2 days before or after the night of the full moon will also work.

To work on this image, we went on the night of the full moon and lower Yosemite Falls was very crowded with photographers. A lot of people know about this event now. Many saw some good results. But this image was captured the night after the full moon. Rick went back the next night and almost had the place to himself, and the double moonbow was already showing as soon as he arrived. To make sure people viewing this image can tell that it was taken at night, we included some of the sky with stars showing at the top of the frame. 

One of the great challenges of taking this sort of image is that you need the mist from the falls in order to get the moonbow, but then if the mist reaches high enough, it can make the rest of the image look fuzzy. There's also a very good chance that you'll get wet during the process of capturing the image. Including stars in the sky helps convince people that the image was taken at night, but a very long exposure can allow enough time for the Earth's rotation to cause the stars to become streaks.

You can get predictions for this year's (2013) best moonbow viewing dates and times from the Texas State University's Astronomy Department's web site. The direct link to this year's moonbow in lower Yosemite Falls is at: uweb.txstate.edu/~do01/moonbows2013loweryosemitefall.html.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!