The milky way over the arch
Oregon coast 9-10-2021
This was a fun evening. We hiked about a half a mile down to this overlook above the alcove and arch. We had scouted the area during the day, so I knew exactly where to stand and where to be when the milky way moved into the position I wanted to capture. This is a 2 image time blend. The camera was never moved at all. The foreground was captured right after sunset, and the milky way sky was captured about 2 hours later. The hike back up through the dark forest was fun, because I kept looking for Bigfoot.....who never made an appearance.
Nikon D850 with Tamron 15-30mmF2.8 lens at 16mm
Foreground: 5 seconds, F13, ISO 64
Sky: 15 images stacked for noise reduction using starry landscape stacker, ISO 10,000, 10seconds, F2.8
Tags: Milky Way milky way photography Oregon Oregon Coast night photography night sky nightscape Astro photography Nikon Nature Nikon D850 tamron Pacific Northwest pacific Pacific Ocean arch
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Milky Way over the salt flats
This is another wake up at 12:30am and head to an earlier scouted composition in Death Valley National Park. This particular spot was a bit off the normal beaten path. Its always an adventure trying to find you exact composition in the dark even with headlamps and lights. However, it certainly can be done and it was. This image took 5 hours to complete. The milky way sky was captured at different points as the earth rotated around it. I began shooting at about 1:45am and stopped around 5:00am. I then waited, without moving anything, until a bit of light came up at blue hour and photographed the foreground. There is a bit of light pollution behind the mountains from 2 distant cities, which is giving off a slight glow where the mountains meet the sky. The images were then hand blended in Lightroom and Photoshop to create this final result.
Nikon D850 with Nikkor 14-24mm F2.8 lens at 14mm
Sky: 15 images stacked in Starry Landscape Stacker for noise reduction, ISO 10,000, F2.8 10 seconds.
Foreground: ISO 64, F11, 1/3 second.
April 10 2021
Tags: Nikon Nature Nikon D850 Death Valley Death Valley National Park night photography milky way photography Milky Way stars salt flats nightscape California california landscape
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Milky way meets sunrise".....part 2
Here is the vertical composition with the commentary repeated with new shooting data.
One of the main reasons for going to Utah for our very brief 4 days was to get a couple of milky way shots. We got very lucky on one early morning. It was the morning of the new moon, which means very dark skies and lots of stars. We had clear skies and no wind. We arrived at our destination along the rim of this overlook at 2:24am. We had scouted our compositions during the day which made it a bit easier, although NOT easy to set up again. Using some lights to illuminate the foreground, we set up 2 compositions....one vertical and one horizontal. We shut off the lights when we were all set up, focused on the stars and began to photograph the night sky. We waited there without ever moving the cameras to capture the first rays of sunlight at sunrise. We refocused and began to shoot our canyon foreground at sunrise. This image is basically 2 images blended together to capture the foreground and milky way together. It's an exposure blend, not a composite. This is done in Photoshop by hand. I do not use any programs for blending images. The camera was never moved during the entire 6 hours that we were there.
Nikon D810 with Tamron 15-30mm F2.8 lens at 15 mm
Sky; 15 images stacked using starry landscape stacker for noise reduction into one image, ISO 10,000, F2.8, 10 seconds.
Foreground: F11, 1/5 sec, ISO 64.
Tags: utah milky way astro photography nikon tamron canyons nature night photography utah landscape landscape
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Long Morning Milky Way over Death Valley
This image was captured on April 7 2021. After spending numerous hours scouting this composition during the heat of the day (high 90's), I awoke at 12:30 am and headed out to this spot. I set up 2 cameras in order to get both a horizontal and vertical shot. It took quite a bit of trial and error to find the composition in the dark, but somehow, I managed to do it. (for those of you that have seen my horizontal shot and read the saga of how it was captured, this is the vertical under the same conditions.) I spent about 3 hours photographing the milky way in different positions in the sky as the earth rotated. I then switched my focus to my foreground at blue hour and just before sunrise. The camera was never moved during the entire process. The light you see in the sky is from Las Vegas light pollution.
Nikon D850 with Tamron 15-30mmF2.8 lens at 24mm
Sky: 15 images stacked with starry landscape stacker, ISO 12,800, F2.8, 8 seconds
Foreground: ISO 64, F11, 3 seconds.
Hand blended using Lightroom and Photoshop.
Tags: Death Valley Death Valley National Park Nikon Nature Nikon D850 tamron long exposure night photography astro photograpghy Milky Way milky way photography California night sky nightscape stars
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Star trails in Utah
Tags: utah utah landscape star trails stars Nikon Nature hoodoo night photography Astro photography
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