Anyone fortunate enough to visit Lake Tahoe will probably know of this place. This is a very famous and well photographed rock that is fairly accessible by road and then a short steep hike down to the water's edge. They call it Bonsai Rock because of the small set of trees growing out of it that looks a lot like a bonsai. I decided to try something a little different than what most people photograph. I set out around 8pm just before it got too dark so I wouldn't kill myself on the hike down. I used an app to determine at what time the Milky Way would be where i wanted it to be and then waited. It was about 10:30pm when this was taken. I used a barn door tracker for the sky. Basically a home built sky tracker to get sharp stars with little noise. The sky was a 3 minute exposure. Then immediately after i took one of the foreground and combined the two shots in post. I got lucky because right up the mountain behind us on the road there were construction crews and they had these huge flood lights that were giving off just enough light to sort of "paint" the rock and foreground. I feel blessed everyday to actually live about 25 minutes from this spot. If anyone takes a trip to Tahoe soon I highly suggest this spot.
beautiful image