On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether youâre traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
?BillinGlendaleCA
One of the photographers that I have been shooting with this year has been touting the hills above the Santa Ynez Valley as a great place to shoot for the last year or so. We had originally planned to shoot at the Alabama Hills for the new Moon, but the smoke forecast up there was grim, so we headed out to Santa Ynez. Unfortunately the smoke followed us there as we discovered as the sun set over the distant Pacific.
The site we shot from is in the Los Padres National Forest northeast of Los Olivos and we past Micheal Jackson’s former home, the Neverland Rand, just before we headed up the narrow and winding road into the hills. As the sun set, we shot the Sun that was more orange due to the smoke in the air. After astronomical twilight we began shooting Milky Way shots.
I decided to use my star tracker for this shoot and was using my Surface Pro to connect to the iPolar to do polar alignment. I didn’t test this out (I tried it when I first got the iPolar device and it didn’t connect), and encountered trailing stars with zoomed in long exposures. I also had a cable problem between my wireless trigger and my camera since for some reason, the cable that the manufacture of the trigger designed for my camera didn’t work (I had a backup that did work).
My initial shots of the Milky Way were 30 second stacked shots, once I got the cable to work, the second were 4 minute tracked shots. I went on to use my zoom lens to attempt to capture the Lagoon and Trifid nebula, but ran into the trailing stars problem on the 4 minute test shots, so I shot it with a series of 30 second exposure.
Setting sun to the west.
I attempted to generate a starburst effect from the sun by narrowing the aperture on my lens..
You can really see the layer of smoke in this shot.
The sun finally drops into the distant Pacific.
Milky Way over the Santa Ynez Valley, shot with a sequence of 30 second exposures and stacked.
Four minute exposure of the sky and foreground taken separately.
The Lagoon and Trifid nebula.
p.a.
Great work as always but, those sunset shots… Eye of Sauron?
Mel
These photos are so vibrant, beautiful, and peaceful.
Thank you for sharing these gorgeous images. Â The first one might be my favorite – the juxtaposition of the remnant blue daytime sky against the fiery orange sunset is wonderful.
Wag
Love the nebulae shot
Mary G
Every SoCal person knows pollution makes a fabulous sunset. Your
Milky Way shots awe beautiful. Typo left in on purpose.
raven
Nice, that pollution is making for good sunrises here too.
JPL
Bill, Awesome as usual but I really love the contrasting colors in the first photo.   Thanks for sharing them.
Quantumman
Thanks for your photos. Awesome! You are a master!
MomSense
All of your photos are amazing, but those sunsets have me all the feels.
HinTN
These are magnificent, Mr inGlendale. I’ve not commented recently but lurkingly looked at all.
WaterGirl
@Mel: Mine, too!
arrieve
Those are some gorgeous sunsets. I laughed at the Trifid Nebula — I repost pictures from APOD on my blog, and yesterday did one of the Trifid Nebula. Which always makes me think of the awful movie The Day of the Triffids, featuring Howard Keel fighting carnivorous plants.
The nebula is much better.
J R in WV
Day of the Triffids — long time ago!
Great sunsets, too.
Thanks Bill, you inspire me. Rain and Flooding here, hope I can get out now for the Dr appointment. You all take care!
SkyBluePink
If the Sun had an eye it would look like the first photo-
Wonderful pics, as usual!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@p.a.: Thanks, I shot more sunsets last Saturday.
@Mel: Glad you like it, there’s a bit of Lightroom magic with the blue sky.
@Wag: I’m going to try for a better one next year.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mary G: Pollution and clouds make for the best sunsets.
@raven: This is true, generally we get better sunsets due to more clouds on the coast.
@JPL: You’re welcome, as I noted above, a bit of post-processing magic.
stinger
The second image makes me feel like someone witnessing their own sun suddenly going supernova, with all the awe and terror and the-end-of-all-things that would entail. Love the gleam of light (the last light they will ever see!) on the foreground plants. Neverland, indeed.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Quantumman: Thanks.
@MomSense: I’ve shot more, but a bit closer to home.
@HinTN: Thanks, don’t lurk too much.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: A bit of digital darkroom magic.
@arrieve: I saw the APOD(I look at them every day), stunning shot.
@J R in WV: Glad you like the sunsets,. good luck with the Dr.’s appointment. What is this rain you speak of?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SkyBluePink: Thanks, I love shooting sunsets.
@stinger: I think the supernova would be a bit brighter. I’m really trying to work on getting sunbursts out of my sun shots.
HinTN
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
They’re the reins of Haleakala and gorgeous to boot.
Jess
I went to high school at Midland, the back-to-the-land boarding school across the street from Neverland (the Neverland property was then owned by the family of one of my classmates). It’s a beautiful area, and I feel blessed for the opportunity to make it my home during my formative years. Were you up on Grass Mountain?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@HinTN: I think they work better when the sun is brighter though…
@Jess: We shot a bit further east along Figueroa Mt. Road, before the ranger station.
Jess
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Cool–lucky you! Hope it doesn’t all burn …
J R in WV
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Flash Flood warning for my little hollow and all the counties around us. Back home now, two big trees down that the neighbors cut and bucked off the road, otherwise things are OK.
ETA… I think it was moisture from tropical storm Fred…
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jess: Hope so too, last year’s fires in the San Gabriels were brutal.
@J R in WV: Good to hear you made home safely.
eachother
Phenomenal photos. Â Alive with energy.
Tehanu
@p.a.: That’s the first thing I thought of too!