John Caplis, Author at Light and Landscapes

Sunrise over the National Mall During the Spring Equinox

March 24, 2025 by John Caplis

The Spring Equinox is a special time for photographers in the Washington, D.C. area. This is due to the east-west alignment of the National Mall and the sun rising due east and setting due west on the horizon during the spring and fall equinoxes,. The Netherlands Carilion Bell Tower at the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington, Virginia is a well known photo spot for photographing the full moon when it rises due east on the horizon over the National Mall, due to its spectacular view that features an alignment of the Mall’s most iconic landmarks. This same principle applies here for sunrises on the days leading up to and immediately after the equinox. I recently made a trip down to this spot on March 23, 2025 to photograph the morning twilight and sunrise behind the U.S. Capitol.

The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE) screenshot showing times for civil twilight (6:40 am) and sunrise (7:07 am at 87 degrees on the horizon) and the alignment of the sunrise (gold line) with landmarks on the National Mall.

Once I arrived at the Bell Tower, I went to shoot a quick image of the beautiful twilight sky over the National Mall. I like this particular spot due to the good separation and spacing between the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, at the Capitol dome.

Morning Twilight, 6:30 am, 270 mm. What a beautiful red sky against the well lit landmarks!

I then used the Augmented Reality tool in the Photopills app to fine tune my location in front of the bell tower for the sunrise. I had to move about thirty feet to the left from my twilight location to make sure the sun first appeared slightly to the left of the Capitol. This new location closed the spacing between the landmarks, but gave enough space that the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument were just beginning to overlap. More importantly, it ensured the sun would begin to rise on the left edge of the Capitol dome.

Pointing the camera in my iphone toward the National Mall,, I was able to see where the sun would be rising in relationship to the landmarks in the scene from where I set my camera up using the Photopills app. From where I set up my camera (you can see my lens at the bottom of the image), the sun should follow the diagonal line and rise somewhere between Washington Monument and the Capitol. Keeping my fingers crossed as there can be a small margin of error between what your phone shows and the exact location where things actually happen, but its pretty close.

The following is my series of images for the sunrise over the U.S. Capitol! The first three images are a combination of two exposures for the overall scene and the sun’s disc.

7:09 am. Love the sun bursting through the windows of the Capitol dome.

7:14 am. I was surprised that most of the other photographers had already packed up and were leaving when I took this image. It is a single shot exposed to give a smooth transition from the sun to the rest of the scene, which makes most everything else appear dark, creating a nice contrast of shadowy silhouettes and highlights in the trees.

I love how the light and colors change over such a short period of time between twilight and sunrise.

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Total Lunar Eclipse Over the Washington Monument

March 16, 2025 by John Caplis

The “worm” full moon became a beautiful total lunar eclipse from 2:26 am to 3:31 am on March 14, 2025. During totality, when the moon is fully covered by the earth’s shadow, it turns shades of red and is often called a “blood moon”.

Timeline for the eclipse on 14 March 2025.

I found out from The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE) app that the lunar eclipse would occur very high in the sky (49 to 43 degrees in elevation) on the southwest horizon (208 – 228 degrees true north) during totality. My goal of putting a widely recognizable landmark next to a close up view of the eclipse would require something that is very tall!

A TPE screenshot showing the elevation and direction of the moon during the peak of totality at the Washington Monument. The red boxes on the timeline denote the direction of the moon for the beginning, peak, and end of totality. The gray line shows the direction of the moon at the peak of totality. The lower grey box shows the elevation and direction of the moon that corresponds with the gray line.

The top of the Washington Monument is approximately 555 feet tall. I used the Photopills app to determine how far away I would need to stand in order to line up the moon over the top of the Washington Monument.

A screenshot of the Photopills app showing the approximate location where you would stand (red pin) at the beginning of totality in order to put the moon immediately over the top of the Washington Monument. From this spot, the moon would be 565 feet high over the monument location (black pin).

The weather forecast for DC was very “iffy” regarding cloud cover. As I departed Northern Virginia at 12:40 am, the skies were crystal clear. We made the 50 minute drive to DC with no traffic and easily found parking on Constitution Avenue very close to the Washington Monument. I used the “AR” function in the Photopills app to fine tune where I should stand to put the eclipse at the top of the Washington Monument for the start of totality. This worked very well, and it put me in the right place at the right time to get the shot. Unfortunately, as soon as we got in place, a thick layer of low clouds began to roll in. Shooting the eclipse became much more challenging. You had to wait for gaps in the clouds to pass in front of the moon to get a usable shot. Often the eclipse would disappear completely and reappear briefly before disappearing again. As the moon was constantly moving across the sky, it became a guessing game where to exactly set up your camera so that the eclipse would be directly over the monument when the eclipse would appear. The cloud moisture in the air also filtered out light from the moon, making the already shadowed moon dimmer. This made getting the moon in sharp focus difficult, and also required higher ISOs and longer shutter speeds than what is usually desired. Despite these challenges, we were able to get a handful of nice images over the hour of totality.

Wide angle shot (29 mm) at the beginning of totality. A nice view of the overall scene, but the view of the eclipse is very small. You could see a shadow of the monument in the clouds being cast by the lights on the ground illuminating the site.

I brought two cameras, one with a 15-35 mm wide angle lens to get the whole monument in the shot with the lunar eclipse, and one with a 100-500 mm telephoto lens to get close up images of the lunar eclipse with the top of the monument. Using a wide angle lens to capture the scene makes the lunar eclipse very small! I still like the shot, as it gives you a sense of the overall view of the scene from the ground level. After getting a few wide angle shots at the beginning of totality, I switched to shooting with the telephoto lens for the rest of the eclipse. My plan was to get a series of shots spanning from the beginning, peak, and end phases of totality. For each of the closeup images to be made, I had to focus and expose for the moon, and then separately focus and expose for the monument. Each pair of images were then manually combined in photoshop for exposure blending and focus stacking in the final image.

Beginning of Totality at 2:28 am. Taken with the 100-500 mm lens at 254 mm.

Near peak totality at 2:55 am. Taken at 500 mm. At this focal length, you can clearly make out aircraft warning lights and the viewing window frames for visitors at the top of the monument.

Near peak totality at 3:04 am. Taken at 300 mm. The eclipse was more evenly lit and was more visible in the shadow areas.

Totality at 3:15 am. Taken at 270 mm. For this composition, I zoomed out to include more of the monument textures, moved my shooting location to place the eclipse lower and to the left, and increased the exposure to bring out some color in the sky and the edges of monument’s shadow. The position of this shadow changed as your shooting location got closer to the lights on the ground. As the moon was gradually descending across the sky from left to right throughout the period of totality, in order to keep the eclipse over the monument, you had to keep repositioning our camera to the left and backwards. This meant continually moving closer to the lights on the ground, which brought the shadow more directly behind the monument. I initially thought the shadow would be too distracting, but for this composition I liked it and I thought it tells more of the story of this cloudy night over DC.

Beyond the end of totality at 3:40 am. Taken at 500 mm. I wanted to get an eclipse shot that featured a sliver of direct sunlight on the moon while the remaining portion was still visibly red in shadow. Notice that the illuminated part of the moon has shifted to the top left, whereas as before the start of totality it was at the top right.

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Tale of Two Sunrises on Two Jack Lake, Banff National Park, Canadian Rockies

February 17, 2025 by John Caplis

During my September 2024 trip to the Canadian Rockies, we enjoyed two very different, but fantastic sunrises at Two Jack Lake. Two Jack Lake is in the Lake Minnewanka area of Banff National Park, just outside of the town of Banff, Alberta, Canada.

Two Jack Lake can be found immediately south of Lake Minnewanka and is a short drive from the town of Banff.

For the first sunrise, it was a very crisp, cold morning. There was very little wind, creating a mirror-like surface to the lake. Due to the extremely cold temperatures, there was also some great fog rising up from the lake.

Early morning serenity on Two Jack Lake.

I alternated between taking images that included the trees and their reflection on the left, and a more closeup view of the fog and mountains on the far side of the lake.

Subdued twilight colors as the first pink rays of light start to hit the left peak of the mountain top.

Watching the fog roll across the lake and rise up into the sky was incredible. I took a timelapse video to capture the movement of the fog as the sunrise lights up the mountain ridge from left to right.

Two people enjoying the sunrise view from misty fog of the lake.

After the sun had fully lit up the mountain top across the lake, we decided to head out in search of other areas where the fog might be catching the early morning light. As we were leaving, we stopped to take this elevated view of Two Jack Lake from the roadway as we were heading to Lake Minnewanka.

An elevated view of Two Jack Lake framed by fall foliage.

Several days later, we came back to Two Jack Lake for another sunrise, hoping to catch more fog but with more color in the sky. It was a warmer, windy morning, with more clouds in the sky. These conditions were not conducive to fog, and there were no reflections to be had this morning. But it did give us some great color in the sky. It always amazes me how different images can look only several days apart.

Beautiful red clouds in the sky as the first rays hit the mountain tops to the left.

An onlooker enjoys a spectacular display of alpen glow across the face of Mount Rundle.

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Winter Comes to Old Town Manassas

January 12, 2025 by John Caplis

Throughout January 6th, 2025, Winter Storm Blair blanketed the Manassas area with 8 inches of beautiful snow. I have always wanted to capture an image of the Manassas Train Station covered in pristine, new fallen snow. As the storm was winding down that night, I decided to brave the howling winds and cold to take a walk-about around Old Town Manassas and photograph some of its landmarks and street scenes. The town was still regaled in its holiday lights, banners, and decorations which added to the beauty of these winter cityscapes.

Manassas Train Station blanketed with new fallen snow

I took a time-lapse video to capture the winter vibe:

Harris Pavilion turned into a winter skating rink.

Old Town Manassas Post Office on Church Street

Manassas Museum at the end of Battle Street

The Things I Love Gift Shop on Center Street

Old Town Hall and the Newly Renovated City Hall

Street Seating at Philadelphia Tavern on Main Street

Street Seating at Crossroads Tavern on Main Street

Flag at half-mast for the late former-President Jimmy Carter, train locomotive with lights on at the end of the track.

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Top Photography Moments of 2024

January 3, 2025 by John Caplis

Happy New Year! I hope 2025 is filled with good fortune, happiness, and exciting adventures for everyone. 2024 had some extraordinary times, including two amazing trips to the Canadian Rockies, rare aurora displays in VA, and a once-in-a-lifetime total solar eclipse. Here is a collection of some favorite photographic experiences from 2024:

January – Frozen methane bubbles in the ice at Abraham Lake, Canadian Rockies.

January – Canadian Pacific Freight Train at Morant’s Curve, Banff National Park, Canadian Rockies.

January – Sunrise at Vermilion Lakes, Banff National Park, Canadian Rockies.

January – Evening twilight at Emerald Lake Lodge, Yoho National Park, Canadian Rockies.

January – Hike with Flora, a gray timberwolf, from Northern Lights Wildlife Center, Golden, British Columbia.

February – Composite image showing the rise of the Snow Full Moon over the National Mall, Washington D.C.

February – A fiery sunset on Wellington Pond, Virginia.

March – Washington Monument at Sunrise, Washington, D.C.

March – Cherry blossoms and the Jefferson Memorial on the Tidal Basin at morning twilight, Washington D.C.

April Total Solar Eclipse – Bailey’s Beads at C2 and C3, and the sun’s inner corona during totality.

April Total Solar Eclipse – Prominences extending from the sun during totality.

May – Moonrise over Kiener Plaza and the Gateway Arch National Park, St. Louis, Missouri.

August – Thunderhead partially lit by sunset approaching sunflowers at Burnside Farms, Virginia.

September – Hiking the Larch Valley Trail, Banff National Park, Canadian Rockies.

September – Sunwapta Falls, Jasper National Park, Canadian Rockies.

September – Sunrise at Vermilion Lakes, Banff National Park, Canadian Rockies.

September – Aurora over Lake Minnewanka, Banff National Park, Canadian Rockies.

September – Morning fog at Two Jack Lake, Banff National Park, Canadian Rockies.

October – Aurora from Oct 8 solar storm, Hogback Overlook, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia.

October – Aurora from Oct 10 solar storm, Hogback Overlook, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia.

November – Sunset at White Sands National Park, New Mexico.

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In Search of Color at White Sands National Park

December 31, 2024 by John Caplis

White Sands National Park in New Mexico is one of my favorite places for photography. It is a visually stunning and has so much to offer in terms of shapes, patterns, and textures across the landscape. I’ve made three trips to the park over the last decade, and upon reflection, it struck me that I did not have any images with colors in the sky (other than blue). I decided to return to White Sands in November 2024 for two days to see what kind of images I could capture with color in the sky. As daylight savings time had just changed sunrise from 7:30 to 6:30, shooting during morning twilight and sunrise were not possible, as the park entrance gates does not open until 7:00 AM. That meant I was limited to two golden hour, sunset and evening twilight opportunities to try my luck! For the golden hour, I decided to make some images that prominently featured the sun as part of the composition to create some warm desert atmosphere.

The first afternoon it was extremely windy. There were towering clouds of gypsum sand blowing across the dunes. This created some great atmospheric effects and color on the horizon.

A much-deformed yucca plant casts late afternoon shadows on a small valley floor between the dunes.

All the dune ripples I could find oriented parallel to the mountains where the sun was setting. I used this wind-carved break in the ripples to create an illuminated, zigzagging line leading to the sun.

My favorite sunset shot of the day. There was a great orange glow in the sky this night.

I attempted several twilight shots while walking back to the car. The park closes a half an hour after sunset, and the park rangers actively “encourage” you to pack it in and depart as it is getting dark. This means you can’t venture too far into the dunes from the parking areas for your sunset and twilight compositions, and you don’t have a lot of time after the sun goes down before you need to be back in your vehicle and hitting the road.

The color palette when looking to the south was completely different.

The last shot of the day, taken from the edge of the parking area, with my tracks from my walk back leading out into the dunes.

Sunset on the second day, while beautiful, lacked the color intensity of the night before. There was no wind and blowing sand to reflect the sun’s light on the horizon. I tried a different area of the park, hoping for some different compositions. I found a viewpoint with nicely spaced, layered dunes leading back to the mountains. This area also did not have many footprints on the dunes. This wide-angle view captures some of the last light on the dunes.

The last rays of sunset filter through a mountain pass in the western sky. I liked this cropped in view of the last rays of light over this set of dunes.

A lone straggler walking back during early twilight.

Late twilight color in the sky looking to the north. Another hiker taking cell phone pictures.

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Fall Color on The Larch Valley Trail

December 28, 2024 by John Caplis

It’s been a long-time goal of mine to hike and photograph a larch forest in the fall. These amazing coniferous, evergreen trees grow high on the slopes of mountains. Their baby-soft needles turn gold in autumn and provide a stunning display of fall alpine color. I traveled to the Canadian Rockies in late September in order to hike the Larch Valley Trail, which has a large grove of larch trees in the Valley of the Ten Peaks high above Moraine Lake.

The trailhead for the Larch Valley Trail is accessed from the Lakeshore Trail and is located a short distance past the Moraine Lake Lodge. The first mile and half of the trail involves ascending the lower slopes of Mount Temple. It is a moderately difficult, steep climb up many forested switchbacks. We started our hike shortly after sunrise, with temperatures slightly above freezing, a completely overcast sky, and a light drizzle of rain in the air. After an hour and half of hiking, we had gained approximately 1500 feet in elevation when the trail leveled off and the forest transitioned into a larch grove. I was pleased that the rain had let up, and there was even an occasional patch of blue in the sky overhead.

A bit of sunlight hitting the summit of Mount Temple as it towers over the larch forest. Many of the larch trees were at the beginning of their color transition. While many trees had turned bright yellow or gold, many others were still green.

As we were starting our hike through the larch forest, we ran into a young woman taking self-portraits for her social media accounts. We asked if we could join in on the fun and take a few photos of her amongst the trees. She had to be freezing cold in that red dress!

Soon the trail opened up into larger meadows surrounded by the rugged mountains of the Ten Peaks. Small breaks in the clouds cast shadows on across the land and periodically illuminated trees. I made a short time lapse video to capture the changing light.

As you continue up the trail, the valley expands into larger alpine meadows with smaller trees and a tundra-like ground cover, which also had turned several different shades of gold. As we hiked the upper part of the valley, we were also blessed with some blue skies and dramatic clouds over Eiffel Peak and Pinnacle Mountain!

The quickly moving clouds provided some great conditions for another short time lapse video!

I really enjoyed walking among the larch trees in the alpine meadows. It was a fun challenge to line up a stand of golden larch trees, blue patches of sky, and the mountain peaks, all the while timing the shots to capture the sun lighting up the trees. It was magical and it was everything I hoped it would be.

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October Aurora in Shenandoah National Park: Part 2

October 17, 2024 by John Caplis

Having just photographed a G3 strong geomagnetic storm on the night of 7-8 Oct, imagine my surprise when a long lasting X1.8 solar flare on the sun launched another coronal mass ejection (CME) of plasma directly toward the earth on the next night. This CME was expected to arrive during the middle of the day on Thursday, Oct 10. The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center issued a G4 severe geomagnetic storm watch for 10-11 Oct. In a G4 or G5 storm in Virginia, it is possible to have the aurora directly overhead, with much of the aurora visible to the naked eye.

For those of us in Northern Virginia who missed the G5 extreme storm on May 10th (due to rain and cloudy skies), this was a very exciting development. The May 10th storm was the strongest display of aurora since 2003! As predicted, the effects of the CME began to arrive around noon on 10 Oct.

We departed for Shenandoah National Park around 4:30 pm with high hopes that the CME-driven storm would continue late into the night. We arrived at Hogback Mountain overlook around 6 pm and set up our cameras. As the sun began to dip below the horizon at 7:30 pm, we could already see red aurora to the north reaching high into the sky.

As the skies grew dark, the aurora conditions were approaching G5 extreme storm levels:

The moon was low in the sky and half full. It illuminated what looked like haze (or smoke) in the sky, creating diffuse atmospheric conditions for the aurora.

Taken with a super-wide angle lens at 10 mm. The vertical field of view covers a 120 degree arc from the horizon to directly overhead in the sky. The red aurora at the top of the image was directly over my head when I took this image.

Aurora over Skyline Drive in the eastern sky.

Red aurora in the sky to the south, with the moon peaking out from behind a tree.

The aurora faded after twilight, partially washed out by the moon. However, at 10:20 pm, a severe-strength substorm once again put on an impressive aurora display:

One of my main goals for photographing this G4 storm was to capture multiple aurora colors in the sky at the same time. For weak displays in VA, aurora is usually limited to a red glow on the horizon. For stronger displays, red pillars may be accompanied by a lower layer of green aurora. During a G4 or G5 storm the aurora will extend higher into the sky and may involve additional colors, such as yellow, orange, pink, blue and and violet.

Around 1 am on 11 Oct, another substorm lit up the sky.

The band of green aurora at the bottom was moving so fast, I could not get a fast enough shutter speed to freeze its motion. It looked like green water sloshing around in a glass.

One of the last images of the night, the fading aurora with part of the Milky Way visible overhead.

The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center recorded the peak of the G4 storm from 1100 am 10 Oct – 0200 am 11 Oct Eastern Standard Time (1500 10 Oct – 0600 11 Oct UTC). KP values during substorms clocked in at 7+ to 8+. It was a wild ride!

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October Aurora in Shenandoah National Park: Part 1

October 16, 2024 by John Caplis

Beautiful aurora over the Front Royal area during a G3 strong geomagnetic solar substorm at 1:00 am on Oct 8th.

I have long desired to get a beautiful image of the aurora in Northern Virginia skies. But up to this point, such images had eluded me. When I got a Kp 7 aurora alert, indicating that conditions for a G3 strong geomagnetic storm had been reached at 10:30 pm on Oct 7, I quickly studied the aurora forecast. Everything looked promising and the skies were clear as a bell. I debated whether to head out at this late hour, but ultimately decided to make the ninety minute drive to the blue ridge mountains.

When we arrived at Hogback Mountain overlook on Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park, a second substorm started to light up the sky. We quickly set up our cameras and started clicking away. Those beautiful images were finally happening!

This image was taken at 15mm, which covered just over 100 degrees of the horizon in the field of view!

Here were the aurora conditions according to the Spaceweatherlive.com app from the 1:00 am (5:00 UTC) G3 strong geomagnetic substorm. It was listed at Kp 7.3. It lasted around 30 minutes before the aurora faded away again. The aurora did not make another strong appearance for the rest of the night. We headed home around 2:30 am, happy that we had seen a strong aurora display in very clear skies.

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Creative Photography at the Handley Library in Winchester, VA

August 27, 2024 by John Caplis

I recently met up with friends from the Manassas Warrenton Camera Club at the Handley Library in Winchester, VA. The library presents great opportunities for using some specialty gear for creative effect, including the Canon RF 10-20 mm super-wide angle lens, the Canon EF 17 mm tilt-shift lens (TSE 17mm), and an infrared-converted Canon R6 camera body. The TSE 17 mm lens allows for vertical perspective correction within the lens itself, making it a great choice in general for photographing architecture. Infrared cameras are great for adding an “otherworldly feel” to a landscape. I combined the R6 infrared camera with the TSE 17 mm lens to capture some exterior shots with a really different look. The super-color infrared filter captures both infrared and certain bands of visible light. This allows the image to be manipulated in post processing using a color channel swap, which turns the skies dark blue and the foliage gold. I was pleased that the channel swap also preserved the green tones of the library roof.

I love this side view of the library as an infrared image. The foliage adds a lot of character, especially the evergreen tree. Because there are power lines running close aboard and parallel to the side of the building, the only way to photograph an unobstructed view here is to stand up close. This requires either pointing a wide angle lens upward (the library is a tall building), which creates major perspective distortion, or using a wide angle tilt-shift lens. While you could correct for some of the distortion from the normal wide angle lens in post-processing, at this close distance and upward angle, it would definitely be a challenge. I used a generous amount of upward “shift” applied to the lens barrel of the TSE-17 mm, while keeping the camera level. As a result, none of these exterior infrared images required any perspective correction in processing. All had beautifully straight vertical lines!!!

The dog walker. Is it just me, or does this guy look like Alfred Hitchcock? Front entrance to the Handley Library. I added the red color to make the dog walker stand out in the scene.

Shooting low on the porch of the library, using the railing and the portico to create receding lines toward the center of the image.

Once inside the library, the first thing you encounter is a beautiful four-story entrance foyer, featuring a stained glass ceiling at the top of the interior dome. The real star of the show, however, are two spiral staircases that connect the first, second and third floors. Depending upon where you placed your camera in relationship to the stair railings, you can make some very different images. I really loved the curves and repeating shapes in the stairwells. To capture these amazing interior scenes, I experimented with the Canon R5 and the RF 10-20 mm super-wide angle lens. The 10-20 mm super wide’s expansive field of view was a great tool for taking in these interior architectural scenes while adding some interesting distortion from the very wide angle of view whenever tilting the lens off center.