Just as my heated seats started to work their magic and visions of dinner filled my head, I rounded a curve and reflexively hit the brakes, sliding not so gracefully into the empty Valley View parking lot. With no forethought I bolted from the car, then had to grab the door to keep from losing my footing on the icy pavement.

Always a beautiful place for photography, Valley View this time was quite literally one of the most beautiful sights I’d ever witnessed. I inhaled cold air and held it. Instead of racing for my gear, I exhaled slowly and gaped through my vaporized breath at ice-coated trees and granite, moonlight infused clouds draping El Capitan, and the glassy Merced River spreading before me like a luminous carpet. The scene’s centerpiece, the element that really took the experience over the top for me, was a full moon embedded in the night sky like a blazing gem, illuminating every exposed surface.

Gathering my wits along with my gear, I started to think about photographing the scene. Because the moon was too bright to photograph (and I have the pictures to prove it), I started with a composition my favorite aspects of the rest of the scene: the clouds, the reflection, and the frozen moonlight magic—the moon would remain out of the frame, to the right.

In most moonlight images, my foreground is distant enough that everything in my frame is at infinity, regardless of my f-stop. But the nearby glazed trees and rocks meant this scene needed to be sharp from just a few feet away all the way to the stars, requiring a small aperture and very precise focus point selection. A quick check of my hyperfocal app told me that focusing 5 feet away at f/11 would give me the depth of field I needed. Once my eyes adjusted, the moonlit branches were just bright enough to manually focus on by magnifying the scene in my Sony a7R II’s viewfinder (I love mirrorless).

But at f/11, even with the brilliant moonlight, getting enough light to reveal the scene required other compromises. Pushing my shutter speed to 30 seconds—the after-dark threshold that the risk of star motion prevents me from crossing—I had to bump my ISO to 3200 to capture enough light. Fortunately, the a7R II was up to the task—while I did get some noise in the shadows, it cleaned up nicely in processing.

Leaving Valley View that night, the chill and hunger I’d felt earlier had disappeared. Photography is funny that way—we put ourselves in the most miserable conditions, then completely forget how miserable we are when Nature delivers. The key is to remember this capacity when we’re debating whether to set the alarm for zero-dark-thirty, skip a meal, or brave extreme conditions.

This El Capitan moonlight moment turned out to be my final 2015 photo shoot, a fitting conclusion to a year filled with highlights. Breaking in a new camera while learning a completely new system and way of shooting (Sony mirrorless), I visited the dunes of Death Valley, the rain forests of Hawaii, Yosemite’s glacier-carved granite (many times), Grand Canyon top and bottom—among many. I photographed lightning, rainbows, snow and ice, an active volcano, spring wildflowers and fall color, the moon in many phases, and the Milky Way above some of the world’s most spectacular scenery. How fortunate I am to have a job that I don’t need a vacation from!

At the end of 2014, while reflecting on the beauty I’d witnessed that year, the new friends I’d made, not to mention countless new memories with old friends, I wondered what 2015 would bring. And now I know. In one year I’ll do a similar retrospective on 2016, and while I have no idea what’s in store, I’m confident my good fortune will continue.

So let’s go….

Workshop Schedule || Purchase Prints || Instagram

Here’s what my 2015 looked like

Click any image to scroll through the gallery LARGE

Divine Radiance, Upper Antelope Canyon

Autumn Snow, El Capitan, Yosemite

Thunderstorm, Lipan Point, Grand Canyon

Lightning Strike, Lipan Point, Grand Canyon

On the Rocks, El Capitan and the Merced River, Yosemite

Winter Blue Hour Reflection, Half Dome, Yosemite

Sunset Fire, Olmsted Point, Yosemite

Rocks and Reflection, El Capitan, Yosemite

Dawn, Mono Lake and the Sierra Crest

Haleakala Sunrise, Maui

Grand Canyon Sunset, Hopi Point

Spring Snow, El Capitan, Yosemite

Morning Glory, Sunrise Clearing Storm, Yosemite Valley

Bristlecone Night, Milky Way from the White Mountains, California

Hidden, Akaka Falls State Park, Hawaii

Half Dome at Sunset, Olmsted Point, Yosemite

Sunset Silhouettes, Desert View, Grand Canyon

Spring Sunrise, Memaloose Overlook, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon

Moonlight Magic, El Capitan, Yosemite

Alpenglow, Mt. Whitney, California

Lightning Bolt, Half Dome, Glacier Point, Yosemite

Sunrise Starburst, Mono Lake

Angel’s View, Milky Way from Angel’s Window, Grand Canyon

Old Tree, Half Dome and Bridalveil Fall, Yosemite

Winter Arrives, El Capitan, Yosemite

Teton Night, Snake River Overlook, Grand Tetons National Park

Half Dome Lightning Strike, Glacier Point, Yosemite

Fire and Mist, Halemaumau Crater, Kilauea, Hawaii

Winter Storm Reflection, El Capitan, Yosemite

Starlight, Half Dome, Yosemite

River of Light, Grand Canyon, Arizona

Starfire, Halemaumau Crater, Kilauea, Hawaii

Sunset on the Rocks, Ke’e Beach, Kauai