YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK — >> Man seeks mystery newlyweds after snapping stunning sunset photo at Yosemite
It turns out they are a pair of Australian actors, but the photo wasn't a show – Catherine Mack and Rick Donald had just gotten married.
"This special moment was caught by Mike Karas, who we don't know (at all)," Mack posted on her Instagram account. "He was just taking a sunset shot and we happened to wander into it.
“Thanks for looking for us far and wide.”
Hawaiian Mike Karas grabbed an amazing shot of the newlywed couple standing on Point Taft along Yosemite’s Pohono Trail.
But when he made it to the spot to meet the mystery bride and groom, they had gone.
Karas went online and posted the picture on his Instagram page, and the search began.
He took the picture Thursday, and it took the internet less than a week to do its job.
Mack is best known for her role on the Australian TV show, “Home and Away,” and Donald for “House Husbands.”
Karas told WFTV that Mack reached out to him after seeing a story about the photo on a San Francisco TV station.
An insurance adjuster, Karas was shocked by the public reaction to the photo and his story.
Dozens of news outlets reported on his search, and the photo was shared thousands of times on social media.
Karas is still getting used to internet fame, and while the majority of the feedback he’s received has been positive, he does have detractors.
“It’s crazy, though, some of the negative stuff people are saying,” he said. “Like asking me if I’m giving credit to their photographer, that I shouldn’t have posted this, if it was staged or even my photo. Like all sorts of stuff.
“Welcome to the internet, I guess.”
After messaging online, Mack and Karas had a quick phone conversation about the photo and the uproar it has caused.
The fact that Mack was a TV star in her native Australia made finding the couple even more interesting, Karas said.
“Haha, that part was kind of nuts,” he said. “Someone had mentioned maybe the couple was famous, hence the secrecy, but I didn’t think much of it.
“I did a double-take when she posted/commented on my photo.”
“That was just a crazy plot twist/ending to this,” he added. “Like you can’t make this stuff up.
“And best of all, though, it was awesome that (Mack) wanted to talk to me, let alone wasn’t upset or anything and loved the photo and the whole story.”
Karas is giving the couple a copy of the photo, but isn’t holding his breath on getting a guest spot on either of their TV shows.
“Hahahaha, I wish,” he said in a Facebook instant message.
Cox Media Group
