Orion Dancing or the shot Ansel Adams couldn’t take. The constellation Orion appears to be dancing on top of the Grand Tetons. This image teaches an interesting lesson about what is called astronomical dark. Even though this was well past astronomical dark and what everyone else would just call dark as can be, the clouds far to the west reflected the light back toward the Tetons and into my camera.
Hence straight up it’s totally clear and in the distance clouds, and mist refracts light 100’s of miles away back to the east. made for an interesting and colorful sky.
The other interesting point to note is that this image was taken exactly where Ansel Adams took his famous 1942 picture of the Snake River with the Tetons. The trees have definitely grown a lot since then, but this is the spot.
OK so now the prelude to taking this image. The night before I have been in Utah making my images of Canyonlands National Park. The skies out west were unsettled and everywhere from Mexico to Wyoming under a near complete cloud out. The Tetons “looked” to be clear and Yellowstone even more likely, but Yellowstone would not open for 9 more days.
So a mere 17-hour drive later I was in Teton National Park looking for a place to shoot. As dusk approached, I remembered the Ansel Adams photo of the Snake River and the Tetons. I loaded it on my phone and started driving, looking for where the mountains would match the picture. After an hour of searching, I was certain I had found it. The light was falling off very fast, so I scurried to get setup. The snow was 3-4 feet deep, and I crawled out on a rock wall to find a place to stick the tripod into the snow. It was interesting setting up but the snow was just a bit below the rock wall, so it really helped, and leveling wow was that a breeze. Just push a leg down to level it.
After I had got done, I clambered off the wall to try to cut through the waist deep snow to the parking lot. I used a sign to steady me and guess what? It was a sign that said Ansel Adams stood on this spot to take his famous image of the Tetons. So all that searching and there was the sign for me if I had just looked 
🙂
Enjoy everyone please like my page and check back often, I have some great images coming soon will keep everyone updated.
Tech, Canon 6D, 50mm f1.6, ISO 8000, 42 images cropped on left and right edges due to headlights.
