Archive 2013 · Yes, Yosemite Falls Moonbows!

Kee Woo Rhee
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Yes, Yosemite Falls Moonbows!

I was excited to visit Yosemite National Park for the first time recently. Yet, I was even more excited to witness the moonbow at the Yosemite Falls which is one of only few places where moonbows can be seen.

The conditions for moonbow were just right!

1. On the Full Moon night, April 25, 2013
2. Clear sky with abundant water at Yosemite Falls
3. Dark night.

Managed to see the moonbow from two different places/angles. Technical notes: I used 10 stop Lee Big Stopper with a polarizer with lens wide open and long exposer.

I hope you enjoy the rare moonbow pictures as much as I did.

Kee Woo Rhee

Edited on Apr 30, 2013 at 04:43 PM · View previous versions

Apr 30, 2013 at 04:34 PM

JimFox
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Yes, Yosemite Falls Moonbows!

Hey Kee,

Very nice shots here, I like them. #1 of Lower Yosemite Falls is nice, but I really like #2 the best.

A question for you. Not sure why you used the 10 stop ND, and then shot at f2.8? It would have been better to have shot at say f11 or f13 without any ND. You could have shot these then at ISO 400 rather than ISO 1000 that way. The quality of the shots look great here, but shooting long exposure shots at ISO 400 will be much cleaner than at ISO 1000. Just a thought for you.

Jim

Apr 30, 2013 at 04:42 PM

richardfromla
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Yes, Yosemite Falls Moonbows!

Well done. You weren't with Gary Hart by any chance. were you? His workshop was shooting the moon now also. You'd probably been standing next to him.

Apr 30, 2013 at 05:52 PM

Kee Woo Rhee
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Yes, Yosemite Falls Moonbows!

JimFox wrote:
Hey Kee,

Very nice shots here, I like them. #1 of Lower Yosemite Falls is nice, but I really like #2 the best.

A question for you. Not sure why you used the 10 stop ND, and then shot at f2.8? It would have been better to have shot at say f11 or f13 without any ND. You could have shot these then at ISO 400 rather than ISO 1000 that way. The quality of the shots look great here, but shooting long exposure shots at ISO 400 will be much cleaner than at ISO 1000. Just a thought for you.

Jim

Hello Jim,

Thanks for the comments. Yes, I could have taken the shots at ISO 400 at f11 or f13 without any ND, but I wanted to have silky water flow. With these cameras, D700 or D800, ISO 1000 still produce quite clean shots. So.. for 25-30 seconds shots I tweaked ISO and aperture to meet the shot rates.

Kee

Apr 30, 2013 at 05:55 PM

Kee Woo Rhee
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Yes, Yosemite Falls Moonbows!

richardfromla wrote:
Well done. You weren't with Gary Hart by any chance. were you? His workshop was shooting the moon now also. You'd probably been standing next to him.

Oh, I should have known that Gary Hart was there. There were about 40 people shooting next to each other!
Kee

Apr 30, 2013 at 05:57 PM

Dustin Gent
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Yes, Yosemite Falls Moonbows!

rhee wrote:
Oh, I should have known that Gary Hart was there. There were about 40 people shooting next to each other!
Kee

Nice shots - but too many people in a small area for my tastes

Apr 30, 2013 at 06:27 PM

Timmeh
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Yes, Yosemite Falls Moonbows!

rhee wrote:
Hello Jim,

Thanks for the comments. Yes, I could have taken the shots at ISO 400 at f11 or f13 without any ND, but I wanted to have silky water flow. With these cameras, D700 or D800, ISO 1000 still produce quite clean shots. So.. for 25-30 seconds shots I tweaked ISO and aperture to meet the shot rates.

Kee

Hi Kee,

Jim's point still stands. Dropping from 1000 ISO to 100 ISO is 3 and 1/3 stops, and moving from f/2.8 to f/10 is 3 2/3 stops. If you had used a 3 stop ND instead of 10 stop ND you could have kept the shutter speed the same 30 seconds because the exposure value would be the same. You could've gone to base ISO and been around the aperture sweet spot of limited diffraction/deep DOF. Nice moonbow though

Tim

Apr 30, 2013 at 07:52 PM

Kee Woo Rhee
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Yes, Yosemite Falls Moonbows!

Timmeh wrote:
Hi Kee,

Jim's point still stands. Dropping from 1000 ISO to 100 ISO is 3 and 1/3 stops, and moving from f/2.8 to f/10 is 3 2/3 stops. If you had used a 3 stop ND instead of 10 stop ND you could have kept the shutter speed the same 30 seconds because the exposure value would be the same. You could've gone to base ISO and been around the aperture sweet spot of limited diffraction/deep DOF. Nice moonbow though

Tim

Tim,

Your analysis and argument are well taken. Thanks Jim and Tim.

Kee

Apr 30, 2013 at 07:56 PM

Kee Woo Rhee
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Yes, Yosemite Falls Moonbows!

Dustin Gent wrote:
Nice shots - but too many people in a small area for my tastes

Sometimes crowded environment means something good going! Yes, it WAS crowded indeed!

Apr 30, 2013 at 07:57 PM


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