The setting Sun winks at the ancient boulders of Zorats Karer (Karahunj), the Armenian Stonehenge. Photographed July 2017, near Sisian, Syunik Region, Armenia.
From 9:40pm to 1:40am on July 27, 2018, the camera never moved from this spot at Amberd Fortress, never shook in its resolve to capture the entire sequence of the total lunar eclipse. The 23 images of the Moon are taken 10 minutes apart, beginning with a full moon at 10:00pm (leftmost moon), and progressing through the partial eclipse, which began at 10:24pm, the total eclipse, which began at 11:30pm, and the end of the total eclipse at 1:13am. The last image is at 1:40am, during the partial phase at the end of the eclipse. Almost exactly at midnight, with the Moon barely visible, the Milky Way made a grand appearance, and a 30-second exposure (with Amberd Fortress lit by portable lights) serves as the background.
It's refreshing to find yourself away from the deluge of tourists and photographers that descend on Yosemite every weekend, and even more refreshing to find a view that's not on some list somewhere that every photographer obliges to shoot. No, I refuse to camp at Tunnel View with a hundred others staring into a cloudless Yosemite Valley. I'd much rather hike my way to seclusion and a fresh view... I present for your enjoyment last light on El Capitan, and its reflection in a Merced River becalmed by a 5-second exposure. Photographed March 2019.
