Star trails from the Milky Way shoot at the Walkers' Lake Cypress Springs house back in March. About 225 shots and little over two hours of shooting went into this. The camera ran out of battery else the bright light trail in the middle which is Jupiter, would have been more complete. Apparently there are people who still believe Earth is flat.
Driving on the Glacier Point Road in which is open only for about 6 months every year, we saw a photographer taking picures from this spot. Curious about what the gentleman was shooting, we returned a few minutes later to see this view of the Half Dome as cars passed by. The Blue Hour made for some interesting twilight conditions. What is hard to notice unless you zoom in very tight is the presence of two portaledges half way up the 1.5 km hight Half Dome. Portaledge is a deployable hanging tent system designed for rock climbers who spend multiple days and nights on a big wall climb.
For some, It will be hard to believe when I say that I had not seen a picture like this taken here at Yosemite’s Olmsted Point before. Until I visited this place and Wisanu told me that Michael Shainblum had a picture of this iconic tree, I did not know this Pinus Jeffreyi or Jeffrey’s Pine tree was that famous or a composition similar to this existed. The granite that this tree I nicknamed Lonely Jeff was growing on reflected most of the star light to the point I did not need to use the head lamp. It was that bright all from just the photons that left distant stars long long ago. May be the light is reaching us now but some of those stars are long gone. All the light you see in this picture is from starlight except for the light on Jeff’s head. That happened when a small group of photographers in the parking lot below where being told their leader about this famous tree and he shouted to me if it was ok to shine a light on the tree to show his group. I said sure. The added benefit was the light painting he inadvertently did for me in the process
