Mobius Arch is one of the landmarks every lanscape photographer seems eager to shoot. Thousands of images can be found online, which mostly show it with very similar compositions. There are good reasons for shooting it this way, but seeing this beautiful arch from the ever identical angles doesn’t do it justice.

The famous daylight composition

Mobius Arch looks gorgeous with the ragged peaks of the Eastern Sierra framed inside the rocky Mobius Band. Unfortunaltely, the arch has been shot to death from this side.

The night composition

If you search for Milky Way images with Mobius Arch, you’ll quickly find that the galactic core doesn’t align well from the famous angle with the Sierras in the background and the few images where it does are fakes, trust me. Most Milky Way nightscapes are captured from a lower and more westerly position than the famous daylight or sunrise shots. From this perspective, the arch still looks nice, but the mountains stand far to the right.

Most nightscape photographers choose to shoot Mobius Arch without the mountains, which IMO makes the composition less impressive. Furthermore, space at the spot from where you can capture this composition is pretty confined. That’s why most compositions with Mobius and the Milky Way images look very similar: The arch is positioned on the right side of the diagonally rising Milky Way core.

Beginner’s mistakes

Photographers seem prone to copy images they have seen from others. I guess that’s a normal thing, as they want to reproduce ‘that great shot’ that made them visit the place. I have entered that trap many times in my photographic journey, and I definitely did that during my first visit to Mobius Arch in 2016.

One of the things I since have learned, besides not spoiling the shot with a silly selfie pose, is to think out of the box. This is especially important when shooting well-known landmarks, like Mobius Arch, where everybody seems to shoot the same composition.

Possible sky compositions

Of course, the Milky Way has to align with the chosen foreground composition, but fortunately, it does from almost any angle. Maybe not with the core, but there are other interesting sections. The Winter Milky Way bow with Orion, for example, nicely frames the arch when seen from the East.

It is also possible to capture Orion setting above the classic daylight composition with the arch framing Lone Pine Peak. With so many daylight images showing this view, I expected at least a few nightscapes from the same tripod position but strangly, I haven’t found any, except those with the horribly fake rising Milky Way core.

The above images prove that it is possible to capture great nightscapes of Mobius Arch from the well known daylight positions with the sky in the correct position, if a photographer is not fixeted on shooting it with the Milky Way core.

Sisyphus the Rock Giant

But what about unusual foreground compositions? Ok, the arch has literally been shot from every possible angle, right? Strangely, nobody seems to shoot it from the backside. That’s why I assumed that it looks boring, but guess what – it doesn’t!

Actually, it looks great! While shooting, it looked to me like the arch was pushing the neighboring boulder uphill. That’s why I baptized it ‘Sisyphus Arch’ when viewed from the backside. Only later, it was pointed out to me that the arch and the boulder look like a giant laying on his back with one arm on his shoulder, contemplating the beauty of the Spring Milky Way arching over him.

Conclusion

Whenever you are at a famous spot, it is perfectly fine to capture the composition that made you go there, but if you find that the Milky Way doesn’t align the way you wished, do not fake the shot.

Instead, think out of the box and search new angles that the target fascinated photographers before you may have overlooked. Like this, you come home with a few compositions that show the place in a completely new light. These often are the true keepers that make your visit to the place a truely special one.