"Upper Yosemite Falls Moonbow" Limited Run of 50

Moonbow Photos

This was shot at 11pm at night.

Sound impossible? They're called moonbows. They happen during a full moon when the waterfalls are rushing and causing lots of mist. Add in a clear night plus make sure the the angle between moon, photographer, and mist is 42 degrees.

I visited Yosemite in April of 2022 with the singular goal of getting a moonbow picture. My last night in the park, I wanted to try and get Upper Yosemite Falls and Half Dome in the same shot.

However, the moonbow wasn't going to happen until late, and I had already pulled an all nighter getting up to Glacier Point. Plus the position of the moonbow was going to be too low for my composition.

So instead, I trekked to the path in Cook's meadow and found a nice quiet spot to set up my tripod. The park was quiet and peaceful. Frogs croaked in the stream of water in front of me. The stars started to come out and the moon rose.

I started taking shots fifteen minutes before the predicted time just to make sure, and I'm glad I did, because it started 15 minutes early. This one lasted a good long while, it hung on very late.

Sound challenging to capture? It's definitely something you have to plan for. You can't see the colors with the naked eye, and sometimes it's hard to even see if it's there. Your camera has to pick it up. A common experience was people standing there, looking at the falls in the dark, somewhat overwhelmed. Then they'd take a shot and look at they're picture of the moonbow on their viewfinder and say, "Oh...wow!