Stars, Moonlight, And The Eastern Glow
First of all, I should probably point out that this is not a composite shot. This was taken last June on an evening when about 30 of us all converged on Glacier Point on the same night, eager to catch the Milky Way with just a touch of moon glow in the foreground. I hadn't planned on staying an extra day, but after feeling somewhat successful with my Milky Way shot from the night before on the Big Oak Flat Road, I thought I would stick around and try to get the Milky Way from Glacier Point. After shooting what turned out to be a very decent sunset, I went back to the car to grab my jacket, and when I returned, I was somewhat surprised to see an entire LINE of photographers stretched out across the section of trail opposite Half Dome waiting for the promised Milky Way to make an appearance.
Well...the Milky Way never showed up. High clouds had moved in during the afternoon hours and the entire sky to the South East was now buried behind a thick layer. It was moving fast and it looked like it might be breaking up, so I joined the throng and set up my tripod in the middle of the fray.
Even though the Milky Way never made an appearance, I thoroughly enjoyed myself that night. In the distance, you could hear a church youth group singing songs of worship as we waited, watching the clouds drift across the stars. I loved the sense of community as all of the photographers who were lined up that night had one specific objective. We were from all over the country and as we shot, we were surrounded by people from literally all over the world who were headed back to their cars at the end of a long day.
After shooting toward Half Dome for quite a while, I decided to shoot further toward the East and was shocked to find that there was an eerie glow on the clouds. Was it a fire? I asked around and no one knew anything about a fire, so I assumed I must be looking at ambient light from the cities and towns far to the East of Yosemite. It's hard to believe that amount of light would be coming from Mammoth, but maybe from Bishop? Either way, I couldn't believe that much light would be caught in the clouds from that far away.
I also managed to grab some of the moonglow I was after as the moon was only about 20% on the night I was shooting. The light on Half Dome is from the moon, which was pretty low at this point.
About 11 PM, I finally gave up and had to conclude that the Milky Way just wasn't going to happen that night. It was then time for the brutal 6 hour drive back home. I've gotten better with pulling over when I'm about to nod off, so I ended up pulling over at least 5 times on the way home to grab a quick nap, arriving home somewhere around 5:30 AM. It was a bit rough with only about 3-4 hours of sleep over 48 hours, but I can't wait to try again.
Stars, Moonlight, And The Eastern Glow
First of all, I should probably point out that this is not a composite shot. This was taken last June on an evening when about 30 of us all converged on Glacier Point on the same night, eager to catch the Milky Way with just a touch of moon glow in the foreground. I hadn't planned on staying an extra day, but after feeling somewhat successful with my Milky Way shot from the night before on the Big Oak Flat Road, I thought I would stick around and try to get the Milky Way from Glacier Point. After shooting what turned out to be a very decent sunset, I went back to the car to grab my jacket, and when I returned, I was somewhat surprised to see an entire LINE of photographers stretched out across the section of trail opposite Half Dome waiting for the promised Milky Way to make an appearance.
Well...the Milky Way never showed up. High clouds had moved in during the afternoon hours and the entire sky to the South East was now buried behind a thick layer. It was moving fast and it looked like it might be breaking up, so I joined the throng and set up my tripod in the middle of the fray.
Even though the Milky Way never made an appearance, I thoroughly enjoyed myself that night. In the distance, you could hear a church youth group singing songs of worship as we waited, watching the clouds drift across the stars. I loved the sense of community as all of the photographers who were lined up that night had one specific objective. We were from all over the country and as we shot, we were surrounded by people from literally all over the world who were headed back to their cars at the end of a long day.
After shooting toward Half Dome for quite a while, I decided to shoot further toward the East and was shocked to find that there was an eerie glow on the clouds. Was it a fire? I asked around and no one knew anything about a fire, so I assumed I must be looking at ambient light from the cities and towns far to the East of Yosemite. It's hard to believe that amount of light would be coming from Mammoth, but maybe from Bishop? Either way, I couldn't believe that much light would be caught in the clouds from that far away.
I also managed to grab some of the moonglow I was after as the moon was only about 20% on the night I was shooting. The light on Half Dome is from the moon, which was pretty low at this point.
About 11 PM, I finally gave up and had to conclude that the Milky Way just wasn't going to happen that night. It was then time for the brutal 6 hour drive back home. I've gotten better with pulling over when I'm about to nod off, so I ended up pulling over at least 5 times on the way home to grab a quick nap, arriving home somewhere around 5:30 AM. It was a bit rough with only about 3-4 hours of sleep over 48 hours, but I can't wait to try again.