The galactic core of the milky way passes behind an ancient Bristlecone Pine tree, high in the White Mountains of California. The inhabitants of this section of forest are up to 5,000 years old, silent witnesses to an ever evolving planet.
Yes, that is Jupiter on the left frame edge and Antares on the right. Sky is classified Bortle-2.
This was a whirlwind trip, i drove 7 hours out, met and shot pictures with Miguel for a couple of hours, then drove back home, all in less than 24 hours. Sleep? Nope. Miguel stayed on to complete the adventure. The original plan was to spend the following evening in Death Valley, but I had a very serious issue with my DFA25/4; the rear plate ripped off, sending loose parts to rattle around inside the lens housing. I thought best to cut bait so as not to add further damage, limiting my chances of repairing the lens.
I used my DFA 35mm f/3.5 on the 645Z. Stack of 20, 10sec exposures, median blended using Sequator. I light painted the tree using my LED panel on a stick.
Hope you enjoy this one!
Tags: California bristlecone ancient forest pine pines tree White Mountains Schulman Patriarch Methuselah night long exposure astro astrophotography milky way MW galaxy galactic stars constellation pentax 645 645Z 35mm 35 DFA35
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Kicking off Milky Way season with Miguel at Tioga Lake, CA, that peak is Mt. Dana. The pale yellow glow on the right horizon is light pollution from Fresno, 90 miles southwest. EXIF shows 9,684 ft elevation at this spot.
Lens is the DFA 55mm f/2.8 on the 645Z. This is a 2 frame pano/stacked median blend using 15, 8-sec star exposures at ISO 5,000, fed into Sequator and StarXTerminator. The exposure is cranked because the only light on the mountain is coming from the stars. To the naked eye, Mt Dana was merely a black void in the starfield. To be clear, this is not a composite; that is, the milky way was in that precise position over the mountain and neither it's position nor size have been changed. The stacking was incorporated to achieve noise reduction.
Thanks Miguel for the outing! My son Parker also made his first photo trip with dad, so that was exciting. We spent much more time driving(social distancing in separate vehicles no less) than actually shooting, but it was well worth it! Though Dad loved it, Parker reports he will think twice before agreeing to any future journeys of this nature.
Hope you like this one!
Tags: California Sierra Sierras mountain mountains Mt. Dana Mount Dana lake Tioga Tioga Lake Tioga Pass Yosemite winter snow elevation Mike Oria photography www.mikeoria.com Pentax 645 645Z DFA55 55mm StarXTerminator Sequator pano panorama stack galaxy galactic milky way astro astrophotography Scorpiusl Sagittarius Andromeda Magellanic cloud detail dust dust lane night outdoor long exposure Nevada
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From 2022, Comet Neowise over early am skies of Mono Lake, CA. This is a re-process of an earlier posted image and a composite. Lens is the FA 150mm/2.8 on the 645Z, cropped. The colors were present in the sky and needed some coaxing to look their best. Some dodging of the tufas and definitely an extra dose of 'movie magic' throughout.
Hope you like it.
Tags: California Mono Inyo Sierra Tioga Tanaya Yosemite Lee Vining Mono Lake Neowise comet astro astrophotography Mike Oria Pentax 645 645Z 2020 mik star stars www.mikeoria.com night twilight evening civil dawn morning reflection sky 395 150mm FA150 telephoto
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Up at 3am to meet Dennis and Dale in Crockett, CA to shoot the Comet C/2020 F3 "NEOWISE". Mr. Neowise did not disappoint.
That is a corner of the Zampa Memorial Bridge silhouetted against some civil twilight sky.
Lens is the A*600mm with 1.4x TC on the 645Z. I stacked 45 1.6 sec exposures at ISO 3200 and did a median blend in PS. A little cropping to tighten up the frame and some pushing of the whites to enhance the tail.
Hope you like this one.
Tags: California Martinez Carquinez Sacramento San Francisco bay Suisun bridge strait Zampa Mike Oria Pentax www.mikeoria.com astro astrophotography comet Neowise sunrise twilight civil suspension cables sky outdoor stack
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The galactic core of the Milky Way passes over an abandoned stone house in Round Valley Regional Park, Contra Costa County, CA.
Special thanks to my light painting engineer, Dick P, who agreed to join me at the last minute, and tirelessly followed my every direction using the LED panel on-a-stick. We set the panel to a warm color temperature for the interior passes, then added a blue gel to simulate a cool moonlight effect for the exterior of the structure. This is a composite, all shot at 55mm using the DFA 55/2.8 on the 645Z. The milky way was shot in darker skies in the summer and blended into the house shots obtained last Sunday evening. Quite a bit of masking and manual blending of layers to achieve the final result.
I hope you enjoy it. Now press L.
Tags: night stars Mike Oria milky way milky way astro astrophotography photography long exposure galaxy galactic MW moonligt moon trees house stone Contra Costa county California Marsh Brentwood www.mikeoria.com Pentax Pentax 645Z 645Z Mike Oria Photography
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