Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Come on, man.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

The revolution will be supervised.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

The willow is too close to the house.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road / On the Road and In Your Backyard

On the Road and In Your Backyard

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On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.

From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.

Submit Your Photos

Good Morning All,

This weekday feature is for Juicers who are are on the road, traveling, or just want to share a little bit of their world via stories and pictures. So many of us rise each morning, eager for something beautiful, inspiring, amazing, subtle, of note, and our community delivers – a view into their world, whether they’re far away or close to home – pictures with a story, with context, with meaning, sometimes just beauty. By concentrating travel updates and tips here, it’s easier for all of us to keep up or find them later.

So please, speak up and share some of your adventures and travel news here, and submit your pictures using our speedy, secure form. You can submit up to 7 pictures at a time, with an overall description and one for each picture.

You can, of course, send an email with pictures if the form gives you trouble, or if you are trying to submit something special, like a zipped archive or a movie. If your pictures are already hosted online, then please email the links with your descriptions.

For each picture, it’s best to provide your commenter screenname, description, where it was taken, and date. It’s tough to keep everyone’s email address and screenname straight, so don’t assume that I remember it “from last time”. More and more, the first photo before the fold will be from a commenter, so making it easy to locate the screenname when I’ve found a compelling photo is crucial.

Have a wonderful day, and enjoy the pictures!

Today, more from BillinGlendaleCA….just amazing stuff. It reminds me of the great Jack Horkheimer, who always, no matter what, encouraged us to “keep looking up!” Even in dark days, that sentiment endured. There are wonders near and far, but really, the sky and stars are just fundamentally awe-inspiring, especially when coupled with some land-forms that link us to the heavens. Great job Bill, I’ve never seen such great shots by someone I know. Just amazing, folks, the talent we have in our community.

Today, pictures from valued commenter ?BillinGlendaleCA.

I’ve been wanting to photograph the Milky Way for a while, but I live in Glendale in the middle of urban Los Angeles and the best I can capture of the Milky Way from outside the cave are some small smudges. I recently joined a local photography meetup group and when the organizer announced a trip Joshua Tree National Park to photograph the Milky Way I jumped at the opportunity. It’s about a 150 mile drive(each way), partly though LA traffic, to the location in the park; I drove there in the afternoon and returned after getting my pictures in the wee hours of the morning. I’ve made the journey twice, in late June and late July since you have to wait for a new moon to avoid the light pollution of the moon. In addition to picture of the Milky Way, I’ve included some sunset pictures to give an idea what the park looks like.

Photographing the Milky Way in these dark conditions presented a couple of problems: focusing and framing. You can focus while it’s light out and then tape the focus ring, but if you change lens you have to do it for the next lens as well. Framing is a problem I’d not anticipated, you can’t see anything on the camera’s live view(my camera doesn’t have a viewfinder); so you have to take a picture and then adjust the camera on the tripod to get the right framing. I like to photograph panoramas and this made it difficult.

The sun setting between two rocks.

Taken on 2017-06-24

Ryan Mountain trailhead, Joshua Tree National Park.

This is an HDR shot(3 exposures at different light levels that have been combined), of the sunset.

The sun and a Joshua Tree.

Taken on 2017-07-22

Near Barker Dam, Joshua Tree National Park.

Sunset with Joshua Trees in the foreground and mountains at the west end of the park in the background.

The Milky Way starts to appear.

Taken on 2017-07-22

Near Barker Dam, Joshua Tree National Park.

About a hour after the sun set, you could begin to see the Milky Way, but since you’re still seeing some light from the sun, the color in the Milky Way is not as pronounced. This shot is a composite(one shot at 20 seconds to capture the Milky Way and the other shot at 60 seconds to capture the foreground).

Milky Way well after sunset.

Taken on 2017-07-22

Near Barker Dam, Joshua Tree National Park.

You can see a bit more color differentiation now that the sun’s light has disappeared. The bright light at the right is light pollution from Palm Springs. There was also some light pollution to the north(29 Palms and the Marine base there) and to the west(LA).

Fisheye!

Taken on 2017-07-22

Near Barker Dam, Joshua Tree National Park.

I had to add one of the pictures that I took with my fisheye lens, cause I luv my fisheye. I didn’t set the aperture completely wide open so it’s not as good as it could be.

The Galactic Center.

Taken on 2017-07-22

Near Barker Dam, Joshua Tree National Park.

A shot showing the color of the Milky Way’s galactic center.

Galactic Center from the first trip.

Taken on 2017-06-25

Ryan Mountain trailhead, Joshua Tree National Park.

A photograph of the Galactic Center just before getting ready to leave.

 

Thank you so much ?BillinGlendaleCA, do send us more when you can.

 

Travel safely everybody, and do share some stories in the comments, even if you’re joining the conversation late. Many folks confide that they go back and read old threads, one reason these are available on the Quick Links menu.

 

One again, to submit pictures: Use the Form or Send an Email

Reader Interactions

63Comments

  1. 1.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Glorious – I can count having seen really clear sky views on one hand – too much light pollution, humidity, haze.

  4. 4.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
    @raven: Thanks. I noted in one of the pics that in that portion of the park(it’s in the western portion) we do get light pollution from Palm Springs and the Marine base in 29 Palms. If I was shooting towards the west, there was some light pollution from the LA Basin, but the Milky Way in June rises in the east and in July it appeared more overhead. I thought that the light pollution towards the north might be from Barstow(one commenter here said Vegas) but both are too far away and in the wrong direction.

  7. 7.

    Central Planning

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: How long is one of those exposures? We go to the Adirondacks in the summer and it is pitch black at night except for the Milky Way. The only problem is we are tucked down in the mountains a little bit, so we lose a fair amount of visibility on the sides.

  8. 8.

    Mary G

    Joshua Tree is one of my favorite places on earth. It’s otherworldly, which you’ve captured so well.

  9. 9.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Central Planning: In June I shot at 10 seconds using a 12mm f/2 lens at ISO 400(I think). In June the Milky Way was towards the horizon and then was directly overhead by the time I left(about 2am). In July it was much higher in the sky when first became visible about a hour after sunset. This month will probably be the last chance to really see it well until maybe February.

    @raven: He’s got some nice shots. You can shoot longer if you have a tripod and mount that will track the earth’s movement. I didn’t so I was limited to 20 seconds(they say I could go to 25, but I tried that and got movement).

    As I noted, the shots with a foreground were two shots put together, one at 20 seconds get the sky and one at 60 seconds or more to capture the foreground.

  16. 16.

    Sloane Ranger

    Wow! Those pics are just out of this world – literally and figuratively.

    Beautiful and majestic. Thanks for sharing them.

  19. 19.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @raven: The telescope helps get a closer view with the camera’s resolution, but you also need a pretty long exposure to capture something that dim. So you’d need a mount that compensates for the earth’s rotation. Most mid-range to high-range telescopes have that built in(the really good ones are computer controlled). You can get a motorized mount for a camera for about $300.

  25. 25.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    Oh, I don’t know if anybody noticed this…but in shots 3 and 4(Barker Dam location) there’s a rock formation on the right that looks like it’s someone flipping the bird. At least that’s what I thought as I was processing the shots.

  26. 26.

    bystander

    Beautiful! Thanks, Bill. And I’m with Mary G on Jashua Tree. Really special place. But never been there at night. Do you take somebody with you for critter control?

  27. 27.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @bystander: I went with the Glendale Photography Meetup group. There were about 20 of us in each of the trips. Though I did almost hit a coyote with my car on the way out of the park on my last trip(it was chasing something).

  28. 28.

    debbie

    No such thing as a bad photograph of the Milky Way, and that first sunset picture is awesome! I’ve taken numerous sunset and sunrise photos; the colors never translate well. :(

  31. 31.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @debbie:

    No such thing as a bad photograph of the Milky Way

    Heh, I’ve got a few. The first sunset pic is a HDR, so I took 3 exposures with a -1.7, 0, +1.7 exposure adjustment. Put’m together in Lightroom and went crazy with saturation and vibrance. I think I also did some split toning.

    @bystander: I’m not sure what it was, just small and white. Good thing I wasn’t speeding or there’d been a dead coyote and the front end of my “new to me” car would have been smashed up.

  36. 36.

    arrieve

    These pictures are simply stunning. I’ve been lucky enough to see some amazing views of the Milky Way — in the Australian outback was the best because you had a view that was basically horizon to horizon — but never when I had a tripod and time to take pictures. I guess Joshua Tree is going on my wish list — the foreground really makes these pictures.

  43. 43.

    sharl

    These photos are awesome Bill!
    One of the things I’d like to do after retirement is get more into photography, especially the after dark stuff you did here. I assume that you used a digital camera, with appropriate software (Photoshop or similar?) to combine/edit image files afterward?

  51. 51.

    opiejeanne

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Beautiful as usual, Bill. I keep an eye on your photos on flickr and am always impressed.

    In the fourth photo there is a streak of light at the left of the shot. What is that?

  59. 59.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @sharl:

    I assume that you used a digital camera, with appropriate software (Photoshop or similar?) to combine/edit image files afterward?

    I’d do it while you’re retired not after.//

    Now to seriously answer your question. Yes, they were shot with a digital camera(Samsung NX500) and the basic processing was done in Adobe Lightroom. For the night shots that have a foreground they were shot twice, once for the sky and a longer exposure for the foreground and put together in Photoshop.

  60. 60.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @schrodingers_cat: I do plan on selling my better work: once I figure out what that is and figure out pricing. I have a large format(up to 19″ x 13″) printer photo printer that works really well. Also, I need to figure out how to reproduce the image on the screen on the printer effectively.

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