Mongolia – Khongoryn Els at Sunrise

This post is part of my Mongolia blog post series.  The following pictures were taken at sunrise in the Khongoryn Els sand dunes, from a slightly different location than the previous night (link). The dunes were a little bit smaller so it was easier to climb them. Once at the top, the view was magnificent, beautiful lines of […]

Mongolia – Khongoryn Els (Singing Dunes)

This post is part of my Mongolia blog post series.  One of the highlights of this Mongolia trip for me was visiting the Khongoryn Els sand dunes in the Gobi desert. The Gobi desert is vast. It is more a steppe than a sand desert, where you find grassland, thorny bushes, gravel plains, buttes, rocky canyons and sand dunes. […]

Mongolia – Ulaanbaatar

This post is part of my Mongolia blog post series.  This is the first of a series of blog posts of my recent trip to Mongolia with Jeffrey Chapman and David duChemin from Within the Frame fame. The 10 day trip started in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, followed by the ancient capital Kharakhorum and continued down to the Gobi desert and […]

Redding’s Sundial Bridge with Annular Eclipse

A few weeks ago, I photographed the annular solar eclipse in Redding. The original plan was to head up to Redding Saturday afternoon and have plenty of time for scouting. Unfortunately, we only made it to Redding early Sunday afternoon with little time left for scouting since the eclipse started around 5pm. I passed through the Shasta Lake […]

Golden Gate Bridge – 75th Anniversary Fireworks

What would be San Francisco without its Golden Gate Bridge? A glimpse of this icon is visible from many different corners of the city. A big party happened last weekend to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the bridge. Some of the festivities will continue until the end of the year. See goldengatebridge75.org/celebrate for additional information. Since I love both fireworks and […]

Annular Eclipse 2012

This was the first time ever I saw a solar eclipse in nature. Okay, it was ‘only’ an annular eclipse, but it was beautiful and a great experience. Around us was a big crowd and when the moon moved over the sun and only a circle of light (aka fire ring) was visible, everyone burst […]

Yosemite Falls Moonbow, take 2

One month ago, I tried to photograph the moonbow on Yosemite Falls. I wasn’t that happy with the pictures taken from the far end of Cooks Meadow. This Saturday was perigee moon, aka supermoon. This is when the moon’s orbit is closest to earth and the moon is bigger and much brighter. At the same time, the […]

Full Moon over San Francisco

These pictures were taken one day before the real full moon. This allowed me to capture the moon a bit higher in the sky when the sky was not completely dark. Coincidently, the moon’s orbit was almost closest to earth (perigee) which makes the moon appear bigger and brighter. This picture shows the strength of the moon light. […]

San Francisco Skyline at Sunset

The last few days we had beautiful sunsets here in San Francisco. I hoped for the same thing tonight, but the sky over downtown wasn’t that exciting. Still, I enjoyed being outside and I got to play with my new camera (Nikon D800). I have to get used to the changed position of some buttons […]

Golden Gate Bridge in the Fog

San Francisco and fog are almost synonyms, at least during summer. Spring and fall are the sunny seasons with little fog. We just had some gorgeous spring days and then the fogged rolled in again. Having some fog in the picture is always better than having just a clear blue sky. So I ventured out […]

Yosemite Falls Moonbow

Last weekend was full moon and I happened to be in Yosemite. Luckily, the sky was clear and the waterfalls roaring. Everything was set for a nice moonbow show. So what is a moonbow? A moonbow is a rainbow lit by the light of the moon instead of the sun. Sometimes it is also called lunar […]

First Snow

At the beginning of the day, the balcony and the surroundings were not covered by snow. A few hours of heavy snowfall, more than a feet of new snow accumulated. There is more snow to come during the night…

Sunrise at Merced National Wildlife Refuge

A while back, we decided to make a short detour via the Merced National Wildlife Refuge on our way to Yosemite. I miscalculated when we had to get up to be at the wildlife refuge to capture the early morning light. So we arrived a bit too late. Just before arriving at the gate, the sun rose […]