Moonrise over Yosemite Valley is a photograph by Ingo Scholtes which was uploaded on July 25th, 2015.
Moonrise over Yosemite Valley
I took this picture on a truly memorable evening. We had driven up the road from Yosemite Valley to Wawona Tunnel shortly before sunset. This allowed... more
Title
Moonrise over Yosemite Valley
Artist
Ingo Scholtes
Medium
Photograph
Description
I took this picture on a truly memorable evening. We had driven up the road from Yosemite Valley to Wawona Tunnel shortly before sunset. This allowed me to shoot the sun setting over the classical Tunnel View vista, which is probably most famously known for Ansel Adam's classic shot Clearing Winter Storm. Furthermore, I planned to capture the full moon, which I knew would be rising over the valley later that evening. I thus set up my tripod and - together with a group of fellow photographers - waited for moonrise for close to three hours. Finally, some time after nightfall, I could spot a faint glow crawling down the face of El Capitan, which is visible on the left of the picture. During the next few minutes, the moon rising over the mountains to the right increasingly illuminated the face of the monolith, bathing the whole valley in a beautiful silver light. I took a long exposure to bring out the faint light and to produce an image that matches the visual impression. A particularly remarkable detail of this image are the bright spots of light, which can be seen at several points in the wall of El Capitan. These are actually headlights of climbers en route to the summit of El Capitan who spend the night in Portaledges, a particular type of hanging tents used on multi-day big wall climbs.
Uploaded
July 25th, 2015