Full Moon over Yosemite Valley

Daily Photo:

Just got back from a 3 day trip to Yosemite National Park, California.  Been quite a while since my last visit, so it was time to return. I picked a great time to go with the full moon dominating the evening sky, but picked a bad time for catching the Yosemite Falls, which was dry at this time of year. I like shooting at twilight and/or the “golden hour”. It was interesting my 1st day reaching this point at a vista above Yosemite Valley. The skies started out quite gray with a huge thunderhead over the Sierras, with no prospect of an exciting colorful sunset, as most of the 20 or so photographers, who were lined up, were murmuring. I knew the full moon was buried under those clouds somewhere and just maybe it would all break loose and shine through. The photographers seemed to be all on the same frequency, all packed it in and left except for me and another guy. Within 30 minutes the sky opened up and the moon shined through, along with remnants of red hues from a setting sun. Like a fishermen waiting patiently for a bite on his line, the fish took the bait and it was time to reel ’em in, and we reeled in some good shots..worthy of the wait. So a message to you photographers about the “golden hour”, don’t leave too soon..wait!!

This photo was taken with 3 exposures, run through Photomatix, Topaz and Photoshop CS5 in post processing. Long exposures were in order, as it was quite past twilight.

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Full Moon over Yosemite Valley
Dave Morgan-Creative Commons