Thanks for the comments guys. Wish I could post this larger, but Flickr has now limited their sharing size. Rat, I esp. appreciate your observation on the lighting - exactly what I strive for in my star shots.
I too was struck by the natural feel of this image. I appreciate other, more strongly presented takes on milky way landscape work as well, but this is refreshing in its subtlety. Especially viewed with a darker background or setting, this is just right.
I like the subtle detail of the foreground (lake and mountains) but for me it would be nice if the MW was brighter. Given your settings you could have blended a second exposure of the MW at 3200 ISO and captured a lot more detail out of the MW if desired. You could have also gotten the MW reflection in the lake with a higher ISO setting. Either way, amazing location and must have been a fun night.
Hathaway, you are right about working the MW for more drama, but I was going for what my eye/brain saw. I didn't really have "fun" shooting this, I was camping in my car to go back-country skiing the next day, so wanted to get a good night's sleep. I got up around midnight, went to the lake to shoot for about 30 min., then back to sleep. I've posted the ski trip pictures in "Herman Saddle."
