The Magazine of The Sierra Club
Sierra Starlight
Moonbow at Yosemite Falls: Invisible to the naked eye, a rare lunar rainbow is captured on film or digital exposure only when conditions are just right. Cloudless skies, unimpeded moonlight, and waterfalls may create this phenomenon.
Bodie Ghost Town: Rowell uses a technique called light-painting to add dimension to this image, relying on flashlights and off-camera flashes to illuminate the subject in the foreground. The 1880s church in Bodie, California, contrasts with the night sky and seems to pull the cosmos down to meet it.
Bristlecone Pine and Milky Way: Inspired by a photo shot by his father in 1976 of a bristlecone pine with star trails overhead, Rowell hiked up to 10,000 feet on the Discovery Trail in California’s White Mountains and took a similar shot in Schulman Grove.
Geminid Meteor Reflection: During the peak of the Geminid meteor shower in December 2014, Rowell wanted to photograph a meteor reflected in a pond. His patience paid off when he captured a bright meteor over the Sierra Nevada at 2:55 A.M.
Stargazer’s Silhouette: While scouting locations in the Alabama Hills near Mt. Whitney in the eastern Sierra, Rowell snapped a shot of his friend silhouetted by the Milky Way.
Photos by Tony Rowell
Sierra Starlight is the culmination of years Tony Rowell spent immersed in astrophotography, or the art of photographing celestial images. In his book, he captures images of the night sky as well as highlighting landscapes in the Sierra Nevada. Tufa towers rise as the sun sets on Mono Lake, mysterious sailing stones forge their path in Death Valley, and a meteor descends on Mobius Arch in the eastern Sierra. His photographs transport us away from the city lights, into the darkness of the mountains where the stars demand attention, casting their glow from millions of light years away. Rowell spent countless nights camping out under the stars in locations from Tahoe to the Mojave Desert in order to create these ethereal images of starlight above natural landscapes. Multiple photographs are accompanied by background stories that provide insight and context, inviting readers to take part in the journey. Rowell photographed the starlight through trial and error, persistence, and techniques involving telescope adapters and long exposure cameras. A lunar rainbow in Yosemite, streaking meteorites, and the Milky Way sidling up to an ancient bristlecone pine shine bright in his photography.
To check out more of Tony Rowell’s work visit tonyrowell.com.
