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Yosemite Falls Moonbow Light Trail
Yosemite Falls Moonbow Light Trail

Timelapse video: youtu.be/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. From this photo's location on the cliff above Yosemite Falls Trail, the moonbow lasted about an hour.

This photo was taken a couple nights earlier than my other moonbow photos. This was actually a test photo made possible by some rock climbers who fortuitously hiked down at night. I intended to shoot this angle with Griff and Mark on the trail simultaneously with my other moonbow photos. This camera spot is way off the trail, and basically no one visits it, so I placed a camera on the cliff with a note stating I would return and begging anyone who found it to not steal it. Unfortunately, I got quite unlucky, and some random off-trail backpackers found the camera. They didn't steal the camera, but they did move it and disable my timer. As a result, it did not collect the photos I wanted during the main moonbow shoot. On the other hand, the test shot came out well enough, and it resulted in this.

A bunch of 30-second exposures were stacked to produce the light trails in this image. A single one was used for the moonbow.

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Taken on: May 28, 2023
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Camera: Sony ILCE-7RM3A, f/2.8, 30 sec, 14mm, ISO 2000 (more info) (hide info)
Camera: Sony ILCE-7RM3A
Lens: 14-24mm F2.8 DG DN | Art 019
Aperture: f/2.8
Exposure Time: 30
Focal Length: 14mm
ISO: 2000
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program: Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual
Metering Mode: Multi-segment
White Balance: Auto
Saturation: High
Sharpness: Hard
Color Space: sRGB
Software: Adobe Photoshop 24.5 (Windows)
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