Upper Yosemite Fall illuminated by the rising moon, Monday night
After photographing Horsetail Fall on Monday evening I was thinking about heading home, but it occurred to me that this might be the perfect night to make a photograph I had been thinking of, with Upper Yosemite Fall backlit by the rising moon. The moon was due to rise about 11:00 p.m. Consulting PhotoPills, it seemed like the angle and phase of the moon were about right. And with the waterfalls so full, plus cloud-free skies, it seemed unlikely that I’d ever find better conditions.
So I decided to go for it. I had dinner at the Food Court at Yosemite Lodge, then connected to the Lodge wi-fi and answered emails for awhile. About 8:30 I headed up the trail.
Hiking the Upper Yosemite Falls Trail in the dark was a strange, surreal experience. I’d been up this trail at night before, but under a full moon. Prior to the moonrise Monday night it was very dark, with the only light coming from the stars. I had to use my headlamp to negotiate the rocky trail, and the bright light ruined my night vision. When I came around the bend where you typically get your first view of the upper fall, I could hear it, and feel the spray, but couldn’t see it at all. I had to turn off my headlamp and let my eyes adjust for a minute, and then I could just make out a tall, skinny triangle of less-than-pure-blackness ahead of me – the waterfall.
I didn’t get as wet as expected going past the base of the fall; I’ve been soaked at this spot before, but the water level apparently wasn’t as high this time. But the waterfall was loud. I arrived at my spot early, and had time to try out different compositions before the moon rose.
When the moonlight finally hit the waterfall, the backlit spray below the stars was an astoundingly beautiful sight. It was windy, which made it very cold, but the wind often grabbed the spray and tossed it around – something I love watching during the day that looked even more mesmerizing by moonlight. As a bonus, some of the photographs revealed something unexpected: tree shadows falling across the spray at the base of the fall, creating a striped pattern like sunbeams in fog.
Since the moon was just outside of the frame on the right side, I had to shade the lens to avoid flare. Yes, the moon can and will create lens flare, and yes, I used the hand technique I described in this post – only I had to hold my hand in place for 20 seconds during each exposure! Concentrating on this at least kept me from thinking about how cold it was.
I photographed for about 40 minutes, until the moon got too high and the light less interesting. The photograph above was one of the earliest; in fact it was the first image where the light hit the bottom of the fall, and revealed those tree shadows.
I’m struck by how different this photograph looks than the scene appeared to my eyes. The photograph is brighter, for one thing. Even though I darkened the image in Lightroom to make it look more like a nighttime photograph, it still reveals more detail than my eyes could pick up. And I couldn’t see the color – the blue in the sky, and the golden hue of the moonrise light. In person the light looked silvery, with maybe a hint of color. (The color-sensitive cones in our retinas don’t work well in low light, but the color is there, and the camera can pick it up. Here’s another example.)
But the biggest difference is the waterfall. The 20-second exposure in the photograph blurred the water almost completely, making it look very soft. But in person I saw the rapid movement of tons of water pouring over the cliff every second, and rockets and arrows of spray shooting out in ever-changing patterns.
But I don’t expect any photograph, daytime or nighttime, to depict reality. That’s not possible, because the experience of being there includes so much more than what a rectangle cut out of a scene at a particular moment looks like. The best I can hope to do is make a photograph that conveys a little bit of what it felt like to be there. And here I think the soft water and tree shadows perhaps convey the feeling of that night better than a frozen image would have.
The hike down was long, and tiring, but the lingering memories of seeing the waterfall lit by the rising moon made the journey a little easier. It was a magical, unforgettable night.
— Michael Frye
P.S. Since I know someone will ask, the settings were: 20 seconds, f/2.8, 6400 ISO. I used the histogram and exposed to the right, just like in the daytime. The image was made with my Sony A7r and Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens.
Related Posts: After the Storm; Lunar Rainbow Images, and the Upcoming Annular Eclipse; How to Shade Your Lens; Horsetail Fall by Moonlight
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Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author or principal photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite, Yosemite Meditations, Yosemite Meditations for Women, Yosemite Meditations for Adventurers, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters. He has also written three eBooks: Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom, Exposure for Outdoor Photography, and Landscapes in Lightroom 5: The Essential Step-by-Step Guide. Michael has written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.
Your killing me with these amazing photos. Very nice work as usual.
Thank you Michael!
After viewing this a while longer, I’m convinced it’s way better than anything Apple offers as stock images for the 6+ lock screen. I set it up as mine and it looks awesome except for the crop factor lending to clipping your watermark a bit.
Michael, I’m glad you like the photo. That watermark contains a copyright notice. I know it’s a common thing for people to use copyrighted photos like this for their desktop or lock screen, but you should really ask permission first. Having said that, it’s okay with me if you use this photo for your lock screen only.
What an amazingly beautiful image. Glad you decided to stick around.
Thank you Felicia!
Great concept, Michael with beautiful execution.
Thanks very much EyeGuy!
Thank you for sharing in words what it felt like to be there, and the difference between seeing the falls in moonlight and imaging it (including post). Never really thought about that–one of these nights I would like to see the tree shadows on the falls’ spray.
Beautiful, Michael, and great story.
One of the things that draws me to doing night photography is something you mention obliquely here — it lets me photograph what I literally cannot see, and the photographs truly are what the camera “sees.” The light is more intense that what we can see with our eyes, things that are crisp become amorphous clouds of light and form, and colors do all sorts of wonderful things.
Dan
Thanks Dan! And I like your comments about the camera seeing what we can’t see. That is one of the fun things about night photography – we get lots of nice surprises showing up on the back of the camera. And I also love just being out there. It can be so beautiful and peaceful at night if you get away from the roads.
Michael, you of corse know how much I love your work. What is special is how wonderful your narrative of your adventures are. As always thank you for sharing both. Best, Barry.
Thanks Barry! People always love stories, and I’m happy to oblige. 🙂
Michael,
Your story is as good as your photograph, and that is something that I really like to know when I view a picture.
I was wondering though, what you would do if, when you were looking at you LED screen, you saw a bear taking a break from hibernation ( as they sometimes do) or a mountain lion between you and the falls. That’ s why I always carry bear spray… 🙂
Thank you Jim! I’m not worried about bears or mountain lions in the least. For one thing, there are no grizzlies in Yosemite. And if I saw a mountain lion I would consider myself lucky.
They say “a picture is worth a thousand words.” That’s certainly the case with his stunner!
By the same token your “1000 words” add a wonderful sense of added appreciation!
Thanks very much Chueck!
What a beautiful shot! And your narrative really brings it to life. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks Chris!
Inspiring image and wonderful narrative.
You keep setting the photographic bar higher and higher.
Thank you again Hadley!
Michael-
Awesome photo! And thanks for the narrative. Its enlightening to read how you got the “shot.”
Thanks Bill!
Michael-
As an amateur photographer I am continuously inspired by your work. Just looking at pictures like this one help me look differently at the world around me and to look for the light. As a descendent of a Yosemite Pioneer ( the man that built the trail you used to get this shot) I love your narratives. They take me back to times I’ve been in similar places and circumstances.
Thanks Dave – I’m glad you’re finding some inspiration here. Who was your ancestor who built the Yosemite Falls trail, and when was it built?
John Conway was my Great, Great Grandfather. He built several trails that are still used today. The Yosemite Falls trail, originally known as the Eagle Point trail was started in 1875.
That’s great Dave. I will keep that in mind next time I hike the Yosemite Falls trail. Is Conway Summit named after him?
I believe that was a different John Conway as my family settled the Coldsprings Ranch which is now mostly Ponderosa Basin.
Okay, thanks Dave.
Beautiful image Michael!
I have always wanted to hike up there at night to photograph a moonbow up there like you did one time. But need to get a friend to go with me as hiking up there alone in dark is taking a risk in case something happens.
Interesting bands of different luminosity in the water at the base of the falls in your image.
I also want to take a shot of the moon rising over half dome from up there. Need to check when it lines up with Half Dome.
Kudos to you for all that hiking in the dark to get up there and back down and for staying late there “at the office”. 🙂
Thank you Wayne! Those bands are tree shadows, I think – don’t know what else they could be. I hope you’re thinking of photographing the moon rising over Half Dome at sunset, not at night, as it would be impossible to get detail in both the moon and the landscape at night.
Crazy beautiful!
Thanks Kristi!
superb photograph Michael . Your photographs are amazing and transports me as if I am amongst nature . You know that I just came to know about a month back that camera sensor sees more than our eye . This was a revealation to me and has made photography even more interesting . However just wanted to ask that does camera photograph colours are true than what appears to the eye ? Your above photograph inspires me to do night photography .
Thanks Apoorva! Just to clarify, I’d say that a camera sensor can see more than the human eye at night, but during the day the eye does better overall, as it can handle a greater range of contrast, and discern finer detail. I wouldn’t say that the camera captures truer colors than the eye. In fact we define “true” color in a camera by how close it is to what your eyes see, so our eyes are the standard for “true” color. At night the idea of true color gets vague, since we really can’t see color at night with our eyes, so we don’t know what the colors really look like. No one knows what the “true” colors of the Milky Way are, because no one has ever seen them with the naked eye. So at night you could say that a camera that captures good color during the day is probably capturing reasonably true colors at night (given a reasonably accurate white balance), and perhaps in some sense those colors are more “correct” than what our eyes perceive, since our eyes can’t see the color that’s there. But you could also make an argument that true colors at night are what our eyes perceive – which is very little color at all – and that photographs that show color at night aren’t real or accurate.
I’m a big fan of your work!! Beautiful photograph, I really love the shadows caused by the trees and the blurred waterfall to capture the essence of the moment. Just wondering if you happened to try an image here with a star trail? Loved your photo of Horsetail Falls as well this week!
Thanks Rosanna! No, I didn’t try making star trails with this scene.
Michael,
I read many photo blogs, but yours is in a class by itself. Invariably, your thoughtfully composed posts invariably beautifully complement wonderful images, and this post is yet another shining (pun intended) example. Thank you, thank you.
Thank you very much Gary!
beautiful!! always a pleasure to look at your pictures.
Thanks PJ!
Beautiful photo. Can a print be purchased?
Thanks Scott, and yes, a print can be purchased. I’ll send you an email with the info.
Mesmerizing photo, Michael! I really appreciate all the hiking and scrambling you have to accomplish to bring us such stunning photos from different perspectives. It’s like looking at another bridal veil in YNP. As always, thank you!
Thanks very much Ann!
Don’t know quite what to say, Michael…’outstanding! Incredible capture!!!
Thanks very much!