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.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
For many, the change of season from Winter to Spring is signaled by longer days and the rebirth of plant life; for me it is the beginning of Milky Way core season. For me, the past few months of shooting the Milky Way have been a bit like starting over. Sure, I’ve been heading out to the dark skies for the past 6 years, but I’m shooting them with a new camera and have quite a few more options available to me. I’ve had to learn which settings work and which ones don’t, when to include filters to reduce light pollution and how they affect the shot. The biggest advantage so far has been the ability to capture foregrounds with no light that was impossible with the crop sensor Samsung cameras(I’d have to shoot foregrounds with the Sun a bit closer to the horizon). I’ve shot at all of these locations in the past.
All shots were taken with a Sony A7iv and a Tamron 17-28mm lens at 17mm except where noted.
This is the earliest shot I’ve taken of the Milky Way core rising just prior to the Sun rising to the point that it washes out the stars. I had a rough night attempting to shoot the green comet due to strong wind at every location that I stopped at.
I purchased the Sony just before Thanksgiving and also purchased a set of clip in filters on Black Friday, one of the filters in the set is a light pollution filter. I decided to try this filter out at the coast where light pollution is really bad considering the position of the Milky Way this time of year relative to Los Angeles.
Each time I head out to shoot, I try something a bit different; this time I set up the tracker to shoot 8 one minute exposures or the sky with a 4 minute foreground exposure.
After finishing my shift at the Home of the Orange Apron, I headed out into the darkness of Lockwood Valley and the Boy Scout Camp Road. There actually is a Boy Scout camp at the end of the road, Camp Three Falls, that I camped at when I was a Boy Scout 50 years ago. This time I used a “Red Intensifier” filter that I bought years ago for my Rokinon 12mm lens(it is the same thread size as the Tamron lens). I set up the tracker and shot 8, two minute exposures and a four minute foreground exposure.
This was intended as a companion piece for my shot of Orion from my March 29th OTR submission, that being the Winter sky and this being the Spring sky from the same location, the ore loader at Kearsarge. I shot 16, 13 second exposures for the sky, one 4 minute exposure for the foreground base and several light painting shots around the ore loader.
Another shot of the ore loader, this time with my new 11mm fisheye lens(I got it the day before I went on this shoot). The fisheye was the last lens that I needed to fully replicate the focal range that I had with the Samsung cameras(11mm on the full frame is actually wider than the 10mm on the crop sensor). This was shot with 16, 20 second exposures for the sky and a 5 minute exposure for the ground. At the left edge of the shot, just above the horizon you can see the Andromeda galaxy.
The other lens that is a more recent acquisition is a telephoto lens(Tamron 70-300mm), that I got in January. I hadn’t used it at night before. This is a shot of the area around Antares(the bright star that you can see to the right of the Milky Way core in Milky Way shots). The bright “star” in the shot right of center is a globular cluster of stars, Antares is just below and to the left on center. This is composed of 30, two minute exposures(yes, 1 hour of shooting) with the star tracker at 135mm. When I had finished shooting, I noticed quite a bit of star trailing in the shot, but stacking seems to have eliminated most of that and I think I got a pretty good shot.
Manyakitty
Whoa, they’re all great, but that last one is KILLER. 🤩
Quantum man
Amazing pics. Thank you for these.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Manyakitty: Thanks, I’ve been meaning to shoot that for a while, I’m very happy with it.
@Quantum man: Thanks, I’ll be shooting more in the next few days.
JPL
I agree that the last one is a real stunner. Thank you for sharing them with us.
gene108
The last looks like something NASA would publish!
Anyway
Excellent pictures, every one of them!
MomSense
They are all amazing but the last two are incredible. Love love love.
Traveller
@Anyway: I have to agree with Anyway, all of them are absolutely magnificent. They all show us our place to the universe and this is always a valuable lesson. But also, that the universe is really a beautiful place. best wishes, Taveller
Baud
Gorgeous.
HinTN
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: You lose sleep so we don’t have to, and the enjoyment toy being to our morning is immense. That long view of the loader is fabulous. Echoing others, THANKS!
OzarkHillbilly
That first pic of the ore loader at Kearsarge… Yeah, that’s the one for me.
Yutsano
SPAAAAAAAAACE!!! I just hope when we do get to the stars we don’t muck that up as well. That last picture though…I would think that was a Hubble picture at first!
J R in WV
We are so blessed to have so many talented people here on B-J with so many divergent interests.
Bill is one of the inspired genius folks capturing wildly beautiful scenes in some of the most improbable ways — thanks so much, Bill, amazing work with steadily improving tools!!
StringOnAStick
@Traveller: What I love about Bill’s work is what you said: shows you our place in the universe, and to me that’s super helpful when the minutiae of life gets depressing. Great work Bill, we are so lucky to have you posting here!
cope
All great pictures, thanks, but I find the last one to be the most dramatic. Do you use a star tracker? I’m sure you’ve discussed your hardware previously but I was just wondering.
Thanks again.
BigJimSlade
Very nice (and I agree – especially the last one!) Have you had any trouble with all the satellites that are up there now?
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@JPL: Thanks much, I’ll be taking more of that type of shot.
@gene108: APOD has put up shots of that region, not mine.
@Anyway: Thanks, I’m still getting a feel for the new camera. Both shooting and processing.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@MomSense: Ah, a fan of the fisheye. I’m glad I got it before heading out that night.
@Traveller: Thanks, the sky is immense, but you do feel yourself when you’re out there alone. It is and interesting expirience.
@Baud: Thanks.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@HinTN: The ore loader is a really nice foreground, I’m always in search of others in dark places.
@OzarkHillbilly: I shot there a couple of years ago, but it is much better with the Sony.
@Yutsano: I may try for the “Pillars of Creation” in the Eagle nebula on one of my next trips out.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@J R in WV: Thanks, right now I’m trying to reshoot some of my favorite sites with the Sony and see what I get.
@StringOnAStick: Thanks, I’ve not been able to shot as much as I’d like this year due to work and weather, mainly the weather(I’d banked a whole lot of vacay time).
@cope: Thanks much, I do you a tracker on some shots. It depends on the subject for wide field shots. For more narrow shots, I do use a tracker. The last shot was 30, 2 minute exposures with a tracker. I do take multiple exposures for the other shots and stack them with Sequator.
@BigJimSlade: Since I always stack my shots, the satellites and aircraft aren’t much of a problem.
Miss Bianca
I didn’t catch this post in real time yesterday, Billin, but wanted to come back and see your latest and DAY-UM, they are awesome!
I admit, the technical side of your artistry is a bit over my head even with your explanations, but I admire the hell out of your results!