Yosemite Range of Light: Shawn Reeder’s Time-Lapse of the Sierra Nevada

Shawn Reeder’s Yosemite Range of Light is a time-lapse tribute to Yosemite National Park and the Sierra Nevada, built from almost two years of shooting in the park, the High Sierra and the Eastern Sierra. Granite walls stay put while clouds race, stars wheel and daylight slides across the cliffs.

Yosemite granite formation beneath a softly lit night sky, from Shawn Reeder's time-lapse — A still from *Yosemite Range of Light*. Credit: Shawn Reeder.

Yosemite Range of Light: the film

Reeder describes himself as a destination visual artist working in photography, time-lapse and film. On Vimeo he presents Range of Light as his tribute to Yosemite and the Sierra, and he recommends watching it full screen with the sound up. That advice is worth taking: the film depends on scale, and the big granite faces need room on the screen.

Time-lapse compresses hours into seconds. A camera fires a frame every few seconds or minutes, and the frames are played back as video. Shadows that creep across El Capitan over an afternoon sweep past in a moment, and a night of star movement becomes a single smooth arc above the ridgelines.

Why the Sierra Nevada is called the Range of Light

The title borrows John Muir’s name for the Sierra Nevada. Muir called the mountains the “Range of Light” in The Mountains of California (1894), and the name suits a range of pale granite that changes colour with every hour of the day. The range runs about 640 km (400 miles) from north to south, and its highest summit, Mount Whitney, reaches 4,421 m (14,505 ft).

Yosemite sits in the central Sierra. The park was established on 1 October 1890 and covers about 3,070 km² (1,187 square miles) across Tuolumne, Mariposa, Mono and Madera counties. Its landmarks are the stars of Reeder’s film:

Half Dome rises about 1,460 m (4,800 ft) above the floor of Yosemite Valley.
El Capitan has a sheer face roughly 1,000 m (3,300 ft) tall above the valley floor.
Yosemite Falls drops 739 m (2,425 ft) in total, the fourth-tallest waterfall in North America.
Tunnel View gives the classic panorama down Yosemite Valley.

Planning a photography trip to Yosemite

Yosemite drew more than 4.2 million visitors in 2025, so timing matters. The waterfalls run hardest from April to June, when the Sierra snowpack melts. Summer brings the heaviest traffic in the valley, roughly June to August. Some high roads, including the Tioga Road (State Route 120) across the park, close for the winter from about November until May or June.

Winter has its own rewards for snow lovers. Badger Pass, the park’s small ski area, usually operates from mid-December to early April, and fresh snow on the valley walls is one of the finest sights in California. Without a car, Amtrak and YARTS buses link the park with Merced, Fresno, Sonora and Mammoth Lakes, and a free shuttle runs inside the valley.

Night shooting suits Yosemite well. Go on a moonless night for the Milky Way, or shoot under a partial moon so the granite stays faintly lit, as in several of Reeder’s sequences. Check the National Park Service for current road status and any reservation rules before you travel.