To All In Awe

For the last 8 years I’ve gathered my friends in Yosemite National Park to celebrate my birthday (or, as of late, more of a “belated birthday” celebration). A few of us drove up early Friday morning and spent the day setting up camp at the Tuolumne Meadows Campground, relaxing, making dinner, and then racing out for sunset. While cooking dinner I looked up at the sky and noticed some high clouds had moved in but they were primarily only in one small patch of the sky. We all agreed to head to the Meadow to watch sunset: my friends wanted to walk while I wanted to drive so I could continue on to shoot the Milky Way at Olmsted Point. When I got to the Meadow I realized I was wayyy too close to Lembert Dome — I needed to be further away. Ditching my friends, I drove towards the Visitors Center and got out by a nice little pool of water facing west. To my frustration, there was not a cloud in the sky to the west. The old saying of “look behind you!” couldn’t have been more true on this evening. When I turned around and saw the absolutely GORGEOUS lenticular clouds behind me, I didn’t even think “grab your camera bag” — I just took off running for the Tuolumne River. I knew I wanted Lembert Dome, the river, and the amazing sky in my photo. Thankfully neither bear nor human had touched my camera bag during the 30 minutes I was away shooting. I took quite a number of photos as the amazing lenticular clouds glowed orange and red. In this case I stitched 11 photos together to form this 63 megapixel image. I loved the way the water curved around and the clouds continued into multiple layers wrapped around the sky. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 24mm, f/10, 1/3 sec, ISO 100 11 image panorama

To All In Awe

For the last 8 years I’ve gathered my friends in Yosemite National Park to celebrate my birthday (or, as of late, more of a “belated birthday” celebration). A few of us drove up early Friday morning and spent the day setting up camp at the Tuolumne Meadows Campground, relaxing, making dinner, and then racing out for sunset. While cooking dinner I looked up at the sky and noticed some high clouds had moved in but they were primarily only in one small patch of the sky. We all agreed to head to the Meadow to watch sunset: my friends wanted to walk while I wanted to drive so I could continue on to shoot the Milky Way at Olmsted Point. When I got to the Meadow I realized I was wayyy too close to Lembert Dome — I needed to be further away. Ditching my friends, I drove towards the Visitors Center and got out by a nice little pool of water facing west. To my frustration, there was not a cloud in the sky to the west. The old saying of “look behind you!” couldn’t have been more true on this evening. When I turned around and saw the absolutely GORGEOUS lenticular clouds behind me, I didn’t even think “grab your camera bag” — I just took off running for the Tuolumne River. I knew I wanted Lembert Dome, the river, and the amazing sky in my photo. Thankfully neither bear nor human had touched my camera bag during the 30 minutes I was away shooting. I took quite a number of photos as the amazing lenticular clouds glowed orange and red. In this case I stitched 11 photos together to form a 63 megapixel image and then cropped to this 40 megapixel image. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 24mm, f/10, 1/3 sec, ISO 100 11 image panorama, cropped

Sky Rider

For the last 8 years I’ve gathered my friends in Yosemite National Park to celebrate my birthday (or, as of late, more of a “belated birthday” celebration). A few of us drove up early Friday morning and I watched an absolutely AMAZING sunset in Tuolumne Meadow: the sky to the east was filled with amazing lenticular clouds that glowed orange in the sunset. Afterwards, I hopped back in the car and drove to Olmsted Point. I knew that the moon wouldn’t rise until 2am and I had plenty of time to try to capture the Milky Way above Olmsted Point. I had recently downloaded the app “Sky Guide” and it told me the Milky Way would rise near Olmsted Point sometime around midnight. Most of my friends, including my photo friends, hadn’t arrived yet and I was all alone at Olmsted Point. It’s amazing how much creepier Yosemite can feel when it’s just you, crickets, and random eyes watching over you. Luckily the stars and the light pollution were so bright that I could see most of Olmsted Point without having to use a flashlight! In early June the Milky Way is more horizontal in the sky and I loved the way it almost paralleled the mountains as it crept towards Half Dome, almost as if it was flying through the sky on its way to take a break on The Dome! Nikon D800 w/Rokinon 24mm f/1.4: Foreground: 24mm, f/2.0, 30 sec, ISO 500 Sky: 24mm, f/1.8, 13 seconds, ISO 1600