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
May and June are really the prime months to shoot the Spring Milky Way, including the core, arching over a landscape. Earlier in the year, while the core is visible, it is not high enough in the sky prior to sunrise to get an arch shot. After mid-July the arch is too high in the sky after sunset. The arches here were both shot in mid to late-May at Kearsarge in the Owens Valley and at Live Oak Tank in Joshua Tree National Park. Arch panoramas take about an hour or so to shoot since there are so many shots to take, over 150. I generally take 13 second exposure of the sky and 4 minute exposures of the foreground and these panoramas were 8 shots wide.
In addition to the panoramas, I’ve included in this submission Milky Way core shots taken on these two journeys into the California night. Most of these shots were reshoots with the Sony A7iv of shots I had taken with my Samsung cameras.
This arch was shot as companion piece for my Winter Milky Way arch and was shot in the same location, at as close as I could remember the same spot. I eventually want to paste the two shots together for a 360° view of the night sky at Kearsarge, my patrons have seen the work in progress. The Milky Way arch stretches over the Inyo Mountains with the still snow capped Sierra on each side(and there is still a lot of snow up there).
After shooting the panorama, I was planning on shooting the North American nebula, but I thought I’d take this shot of the Kearsarge station sign and light paint it. I’d shot the Milky Way core with the railroad tracks as a foreground and thought this would be a good shot as well. I glad I took the time to take this shot, it turned out well and I had problems with my nebula shot(I think my camera/lens is too heavy for my tracker without a counterweight).
I had a few weekdays off from my service at the Home of the Orange Apron, so I decided to head out to Joshua Tree. There was one pretty big problem, the Moon wasn’t going to set until about 12:30am, limiting my shoot time to about 3 hours. I used the Moon in the sky to my advantage, lighting the foreground for my foreground shots and then I took the shots of the sky after the Moon had set(I usually do this in the reverse order).
Before heading out to my next location, I decided to recreate a shot I’d take two years earlier(I also shot a panorama then) of the Milky Way core over the Coast Live Oak that the area is named for. In Joshua Tree, a tank is an area in a gully that was dammed off to retain water for when the park was used for cattle ranching in the early 1900’s. Since Joshua Tree became a National Monument and then Park, these areas have filled with sand.
Four years ago, I was shooting in Joshua Tree with a fellow photographer and we stopped at the entrance to the Jumbo Rocks Campground and I shot this composition of the Milky Way core over these same rocks. It had the rock formations you find throughout the park and a Joshua Tree front and center. It is one of my favorite compositions and I had to shoot it again with the Sony.
This was the final stop on my stay in the park. I’ve shot here many times before and this was the first location where I actually somewhat successfully captured an image of the Milky Way. Due to how late it was and the position of the core, I was unable to recreate the shot I took 6 years ago due to the position of the Milky Way core, but I did take the same shot I took 3 years ago at this location.
As I moved further back along the trail to the parking lot, I thought that this might be a good composition as well with the bush to the right of the frame. That bush is right next to the rock where we shot 6 years ago.
Almost back to the parking lot and with the Sun nearing the horizon, I liked the position of the core and these rocks. What I didn’t see until my next journey to the park in June was a really nice Joshua Tree just out of the frame to the right(i didn’t get a shot of it then either).
Baud
Maybe I’m just imagining it, but I feel like the these night shots are the best set yet.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Thanks, I’ve got a better camera and there is a learning curve with both shooting and processing.
Baud
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
To my layman’s eyes, you are improving as a photographer.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
Possibly, I think it is more improved tools and learning how to use them. most of these shots are a composition that I’ve shot before. My post processing skills are better than they were, however I’m working with better data to start with, even if the shot is exactly the same. I’ll end up with a similar learning curve when I get the A7r after it returns modified.
An example of better data…I had dinner with the kid last Friday, I showed her a shot taken with my NX1 and one taken with the A7iv. It is literally the difference between night and day, same setting on the cameras.
Rebel’s Dad
Oh, Bill! I always love your pics, but these are better than ever. And I’m a sucker for a beautiful shot of the Milky Way like that!
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Rebel’s Dad: Thanks, I’ve been shooting since then. The new shots are better.
Obvious Russian Troll
Great shots, Bill!
JPL
Bill, I agree with Baud. Amazing!
OzarkHillbilly
Nice shots, Bill, very nice.
evodevo
WOW…just WOW!
Quantum man
Awesome pictures! Thanks for sharing them.
Albatrossity
Very nice! The new camera is serving you (and us!) well.
Sure Lurkalot
These photographs are fabulous!
Manyakitty
Really excellent! Thanks for sharing!
Miss Bianca
Sublime
SkyBluePink
celestial
Celestial:
adjective
All of the above, Bill- wonderful pics!
munira
I agree with everyone else. These are fantastic.
cope
These are wonderful pictures and I really enjoy the backstory and technical bits you give us as well. As the late Jack Horkheimer used to say, “Keep looking up.”
Thanks.
stinger
How beautiful. These give me an idea of where I am in the universe. Thank you, Bill!
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Obvious Russian Troll: Thanks, sorry for the late reply…I had to get some sleep, closing shift at the Home of the Orange Apron today.
@JPL: Thanks much, the biggest change in workflow has been being able to shoot the foreground at the same time that I shoot the sky. I can shoot a lot more shots now than I was able to with the old camera.
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@evodevo: Thanks, at least it is a bit warmer than it was when I was shooting the early Spring and Winter shots.
@Quantum man: My pleasure.
@Albatrossity: It is the difference between night and day as I said above, I’m looking forward to the full spectrum mod on the A7r when I get it back. One thing I did on my last shoot was use Long Exposure Noise Reduction on the base foreground shots. It doubles the exposure time, but the results are much better.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Sure Lurkalot: Glad you like them.
@Manyakitty: Thanks much, the next set of my shots for OTR will not be night shots.
@Miss Bianca: Thanks.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@SkyBluePink: Wait until you see the next set of Milky Way shots.
@munira: Glad you like them.
@cope: The naked eye view of the sky is truly amazing, and very few folk here in LA have taken a trip out to see it. The camera adds color and detail that we can’t see with our eyes. I’m really looking forward to seeing what the moded camera will shoot.
@stinger: It is interesting that only 100 years ago, the Milky Way was thought of as the entire universe.
CaseyL
My gosh, I love those arch shots! I didn’t even know you could photograph the galaxy as an arch; I’ve always seen it as a banner across the sky.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@CaseyL: In the northern hemisphere, the Milky Way is pretty much always an arch, it may be pretty flat early in the season close to sunrise. In the Spring/Summer it moves from east to west in the sky, rising earlier in the night. The Fall/Winter also has an arch, but absent the core. In the southern hemisphere the core is more centered on the horizon(lucky bastards).