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I photographed this along the Big Sur Coastline about 2 am on July 5th of this year. While driving late that night I saw an opening in the sky along highway 1, pulled over and discovered a trail into the unknown. I figured it wasn't too far from the coastline but soon discovered over a mile in, I could hear no sound of waves lapping in the distance. I'm not easily scared, but as the trail narrowed, the foliage thickened and conditions were pitch black from the new moon phase, things felt eerie. Shortly thereafter I was walking through a tunnel of trees, and noticed some eyes reflecting from my headlamp in the distance. I assumed it was a deer, but as I approached and looked to my left, to my shock I saw a good size cat peering at me as it was hanging upon the tree branches about 5 feet off the ground. There was no where I could go at this point, so I just kept walking, confidently, though freaking out internally, and looking back every few steps as I proceeded forward. After what seemed like forever, I found a fork in the trail, and could hear faint sounds of the ocean. After hiking some winding paths I found my way to an overhang cliff with the ocean below. The Milky Way was the brightest I'd ever seen. It was after 1 am at this time, and the moon had already set. After some test shots I repositioned myself and captured the image in two exposures. 30 seconds f2.8 at 5000 ISO for the sky and 1600 ISO for 8 minutes for the foreground. I felt the image reflected my state of being at the time quite well.
New to this forum, but appreciate your comments/feedback.
Sounds like a great adventure you had! I really like what you came up with, nice work with the stars and also the ground layer. It is lit up, but still has a very night time feel to it. Good Job.
I hear a lot of sounds at night and keep on going, but if I were by myself and walked by a mountain lion in a tree I would have left ASAP - if it gave me the chance to do so...... Hopefully, thankfully, it was a bobcat or something else.
That's a beautiful landscape, thanks for sharing. Enjoyed the story, too.
May I ask what equipment you were using (carrying!)? Not why I'm asking, but I'm pretty sure I'd have left *whatever* I was carrying if I had to try to not get killed by a cat. I figure it has to be pretty tough to lift the big ones by the back of their neck(!)...
What a gorgeous shot, and wow, what a story! Makes me want to "get lost" ASAP myself and experience something just a little heart-pounding. I miss those days!
I've done my fair share of moving through eerie bush-tunnels, and it's so much fun. Your vivid description brought it all back. Actually, I half-wished to see a milky way view from whatever spot you were emerging from the woods, that could have been gorgeous as well!
