Posted on June 8, 2012, 5:39 pm, by QT Luong, under
Gear.
Watching a moonbow with your own eyes is an awesome experience. While the camera can capture colors that the eye doesn’t see (as explained in my previous blog post about moonbows), the way it works doesn’t capture the experience that well. A long moonlit exposure looks almost the same as a daylight exposure that one […]
Posted on May 30, 2012, 12:11 pm, by QT Luong, under
Techniques.
A moonbow is a rainbow produced by moonlight, rather than direct sunlight. While observing a rainbow in the sky requires rare and unpredictable combination of conditions, it isn’t too difficult to predict the appearance of spray moonbows, which occur in the mist of waterfalls. Yosemite moonbows have been known for some time. John Muir described […]
Posted on May 2, 2012, 11:41 am, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Last winter, I traveled from March 12 to March 23 with my friend Regis Vincent to Alaska to seek the Aurora Borealis, also called Northern Lights. Since this was my first attempt, I sought to maximize chances of seeing the Aurora: Auroral activity is strongest slightly above the Polar Circle, which in North America is […]
Posted on April 22, 2012, 12:42 pm, by QT Luong, under
Uncategorized.
Everyday should be Earth Day. We should remember year round that our planet and its resources are finite. Yet the occasion is a great catalyst for change, bringing 190 countries together, connecting because of a common concern instead of our differences. Let be sure to learn something new today, and apply it to our everyday […]
Posted on January 26, 2012, 5:54 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Although they are not as tall as the coastal redwoods, the giant sequoia trees still reach impressively into the sky. I found it difficult to convey the sense of cosmic height in daylight images. The usually blue sky isn’t visually that interesting, there are almost always harsh shadows or dappled light on a part of […]
Posted on January 19, 2012, 10:01 am, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Last year, I spent some time in Cedar Grove, Kings Canyon National Park, trying to find out whether it was another Yosemite Valley. In the previous post, I reported about my explorations of the Cedar Grove valley floor. In this post, I am describing some of my findings on the Cedar Grove rims from a […]
Posted on December 29, 2011, 6:20 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
On the occasion of a return to Lexington, I walked the Freedom Trail and the Black Heritage Trail in Boston, before taking again a trip to Acadia National Park – for a third consecutive year. As I set up my camera bag on a slope on the shores of Jordan Pond, it toppled, a lens […]
Posted on October 28, 2011, 3:37 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Mount Hoffman (10,845 feet, 3,305 meters) is right in the center of Yosemite. For a (relatively) easy to access viewpoint which gives you spectacular bird-eye’s views of the Yosemite backcountry in all directions, it is hard to top this hike. If you do only one high-country summit hike in Yosemite, I would suggest this one. […]
Posted on September 21, 2011, 9:34 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Kings Canyon National park was conceived by as a “wilderness park”, mostly free from development. There are only two sections accessible by car within the park, one around Grant Grove, the other in Cedar Grove. Both those sections are small: many visitors do not notice that shortly after Grant Grove, they exit the park, entering […]
Posted on September 14, 2011, 9:38 am, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
The Na Pali Coast, on the North Shore of Kauai has some of the most spectacular coastal scenery anywhere, with the the grandest fluted coastal cliffs in all the Hawaiian Islands. Because of its steepness the Na Pali Coast is entirely roadless. Besides boat and helicopter, the only way to see the Na Pali Coast […]
