“When the mind is calm, there is clarity. We see, hear, and respond from this awareness”.
This idea was so spot-on on my short hike to May Lake for the SuperMoon. I have been to May Lake dozens of times in my career, but it was always earlier in my life, and never with the idea of a great photograph in mind. My arrival was early, it’s a good thing too, it took at least an hour to find the location of these captures. When the mind was calm, I took forty-five minutes to plan my exit too, the shooting spot was way up on the far-left side of the lake, maybe a twenty-minute walk down through talus to reach the Mount Hoffman trail. I have to say it, but my body does not respond well to running talus later in life!
There were two concepts here, the SuperMoon and the unexpectable view of Mount Clark. The Clark Range caught my eye! I started making exposures, each set was better than the one beforehand! Later I did not even consider the earlier shots, in the ninety second slot, the light was dazzling! Working frantically, I made a long telephoto of the moonrise, and then zoomed to make the first Clerk Range image. I made a fast change to a wide-angle zoom, being careful not to damage my telephoto zoom, and made the last shot on the Clark Range. In the waning seconds I made only one capture of each of the Clark Range images! Then the light was gone. This capture shows the glacier on Mount Lyell, Mount McClure, the tip of Banner Peak and Mount Florence, the gyms of the Yosemite high-country.
Then there was “clarity”, I had scouted the way out, and I reached the trail just as the blue light was fading into an exquisite moonlight evening.
