Yosemite Falls Moonbow Light Trail 50mm
Timelapse video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD1cJzsTHMo
Since 2019, I've had the idea of photographing a moonbow on Yosemite Falls while a hiker created a light trail up the trail next to it. My first attempt at this shot was canceled by the pandemic, and then the next few years were too dry for good moonbows. This year's record snowpack finally enabled this photo.
I wrote a Python code to predict where and when rainbows and moonbows could be possible. This involved some fun spherical trigonometry and vector math that I hadn't needed in a while. I was worried that I might have made an error and a whole group of people might make a trip based upon my erroneous predictions. Fortunately, my predictions were accurate, the moonbow appeared right on schedule, and it lasted about 20 minutes when viewed from Sentinel Dome.
Jon-Kyle Mohr and I carried six cameras up to Sentinel Dome, across the valley from Yosemite Falls. Griff Joyce and Mark Vierra, of the Half Dome 50/50/50 adventure and the Yosemite lunar eclipse trip, hiked up Yosemite Falls at the right time. An 82% moon illuminated the scene.
Clouds obscured the sky above, blocking the moon, and filled the valley, blocking my view of the falls. Following some desperate prayers, they cleared exactly as the moonbow occurred. The photo was possible after all!
I stacked a bunch of 30-second exposures to produce the light trail. A single exposure was used for the moonbow.
Yosemite Falls Moonbow Light Trail 50mm
Timelapse video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD1cJzsTHMo
Since 2019, I've had the idea of photographing a moonbow on Yosemite Falls while a hiker created a light trail up the trail next to it. My first attempt at this shot was canceled by the pandemic, and then the next few years were too dry for good moonbows. This year's record snowpack finally enabled this photo.
I wrote a Python code to predict where and when rainbows and moonbows could be possible. This involved some fun spherical trigonometry and vector math that I hadn't needed in a while. I was worried that I might have made an error and a whole group of people might make a trip based upon my erroneous predictions. Fortunately, my predictions were accurate, the moonbow appeared right on schedule, and it lasted about 20 minutes when viewed from Sentinel Dome.
Jon-Kyle Mohr and I carried six cameras up to Sentinel Dome, across the valley from Yosemite Falls. Griff Joyce and Mark Vierra, of the Half Dome 50/50/50 adventure and the Yosemite lunar eclipse trip, hiked up Yosemite Falls at the right time. An 82% moon illuminated the scene.
Clouds obscured the sky above, blocking the moon, and filled the valley, blocking my view of the falls. Following some desperate prayers, they cleared exactly as the moonbow occurred. The photo was possible after all!
I stacked a bunch of 30-second exposures to produce the light trail. A single exposure was used for the moonbow.