Midnight Rambles, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

I took this photo of the view down Tenaya Canyon towards Half Dome shortly before midnight on June 21. I was standing on a granite rock “platform” about 1/2 a mile from the parking lot at Olmsted Point along the Tioga Pass road. I exposed the image for 1348 seconds, or 22.5 minutes. You can see the Tenaya watershed, Mt Sunrise, and Half Dome (towards the right of the photo) lit by ambient starlight and the setting crescent moon. In the background of the photo, you can see the pale remains of sunset and also light from the California valley cities like Merced and Fresno (some of this light is also on Half Dome).

Two nights before I spent a lonely and awesome night time vigil on Half Dome itself photographing the stars and the landscape. As I waited during my midnight rambles while this exposure was being captured, and then being processed, I could hear the occassional call of an owl and a coyote. I could also look out to Half Dome and see my platform in the sky.

Related stories: Creature of the Night; Digital Darkness; On Night Photography.

Visit Digital Night by Harold Davis. Check out the view of Half Dome from Olmsted Point in daylight (scroll to the bottom of the linked story).