Timing is everything. On a full moon photo hike in the Alabama Hills (eastern Sierra Nevada's above Death Valley) I approached the mobius arch and the milky way was shooting through it. I don’t know if I could have planned this any better if I tried. Having the full moon behind me helped light my foreground but didn’t diminish the milky way too much. I was able to get this photo in one shot, no focus stacking. A magical evening for sure.
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6 Comments
I like the shapes and color. Amazing background if it is real.
Thanks again David. I am fairly new to astrophotography and was more surprised than anyone with the results. It was a confluence of the right circumstances that lead to this shot. I shot this with a Nikon Z 6ii w/ a Nikkor Z 20mm 1.8f, 13s, ISO 1,200. In addition to the moonlight behind me, I used an LCD light to illuminate the foreground (maybe 2 seconds or less) to keep the shutter speed down to 13 seconds as to not get too much coma or too many stars but still capture the character of the galatic core.
Star photography is often filled with a complicated processing flow, to produce this image in one shot is an amazing technical achievement.
Thanks Dean, as I mentioned to David above, I was as surprised as anyone as to the results. I feel I am still getting my feet wet with astrophotography. If anything, it’s a great reason for night hiking under the stars!
Oooh, very nice.
Thank you Matthew! I am new to the fstoppers community, happy to be aboard.