This past weekend I went to Kentucky to shoot some photos for my Brother-in-law's new store in Somerset.  I chose this weekend because of the full moon for the magical Cumberland Falls Moonbow!

On Saturday morning I woke up at 2am and hit the road hoping to shoot the falls under the last of the moonlight, and while it looked pretty, I was on the wrong side of the falls to view the 'bow' during the moonset. Additionally, the angle of the moon was pretty high in the sky, which would have made the 'bow' very low.

Either way, I took a photo or two, then fell asleep in my car for a few hours to take some more shots during the morning hours.

Cumberland Falls under Moonlight

And then during morning twilight and sunrise...

Cumberland Falls during morning twilight.

Spray rises from Cumberland falls during morning twilight.

As the sun started to peak out, I went to the overlook that was farther away to get a wider perspective.

Cumberland FallsCumberland Falls is a large waterfall in Kentucky south of Somerset. During full moons, the place is filled with people who watch the awesome moonbow

Trees and clouds being lit up by the sun above Cumberland Falls.

I then mounted my 10 Stop B+W ND Filter to take a 2 minute exposure as the sun hit the trees.

Cumberland falls as seen through a B+W 10 Stop Filter

After this, I went and took a long nap to recover from a night with little sleep.  Then after that we went to the Wolf Creek Dam and took a photo from the Fish Hatchery area.  It was nice to be outside on such a lovely day!   The only problem with lovely days is that all the sunshine can really make photograph difficult, especially water scenes.  This is another situation when a ten stop filter comes in handy, it smooths out water and lets clouds roll past, taking a snapshot and making it a little better...  

Wolf Creek Dam long exposure

After this, I went BACK to Cumberland Falls for the Moonbow during the moonrise.  Man oh man was it a different place!  There were TONS of people there!  I first went to the far overlook and just prayed I would be able to see the moonbow from there...

Cumberland Falls under moonlight

No Dice!  So I headed back to the closer overlooks and was met by GOBS of people!  There were probably 30 people and about 10 tripods at the bottom overlook.  My tripod can put my camera well above my head and I considered just shooting from above everybody.  Then it hit me, "Why would I want the photo that all these other people have?"  I mean, sure, they are getting a lot of the 'bow' in their photos but really nothing else.  So I said "screw it" and hopped the fence.  I had the base of the falls all to myself.  And while the 'bow' may not be as large in my photos, I have everything else that I want.

I got down to the base without a light, I did not want to draw any attention to myself because I didn't want to give any other photographers any ideas and I didn't want any employee hassling me.  But once I got down there and got comfortable, I knew a little light painting was in order.

I was very careful when lightpainting, as to not shine the light on the falls too much.  I knew that this may mess with other people's attempts to photograph the falls, so I used my hand to block the light and keep it in the foreground.

Lightpainting near the Cumberland Falls Moonbow.

Lightpainting near the Cumberland Falls Moonbow.

If you look that the below photo, on the far left, you can see heads of people looking down at the moonbow.

People watching the Cumberland Falls Moonbow.

Thanks for looking:)