p.1 #1 · The Reason I went to the Cirque of the Towers
I'd already planned to go back into the Wind Rivers, but hadn't decided on a location. Then somebody showed me a photo with a similar composition and, being lazy, decided to go there. I don't shoot a lot of Milky Way compositions, but when I do, I use a 3.4# body and 2# f/2.8 15mm lens. For backpacking, I go as light as I can, with a 1.6# body and .5# f/4 22mm equivalent lens. I prefer to shoot 13 second exposures to keep the stars pretty round, but with the f/4, I had to go to 32 seconds. 6400 ISO is just too noisy, so I kept it at 3200. I blended 2 exposures to be able to have a little more of the Milky Way at the top. Additionally, the Sky Safari app showed the Milky Way to be to the south, but as darkness descended, it was clear that it was to the west. Changing my location was limited due to the ground being water, large boulders and willows that obscured both. For some reason, I didn't want to step into the willows only to find myself plunging off a boulder into the water..... go figure. With all that, this is what I came up with.
p.1 #4 · The Reason I went to the Cirque of the Towers
Wow! I love it Monica. You found the holy grail of MW with a stunning foreground with enough illumination to show some details, but still looks real. Of course the waterfall is what takes it to the next level.
p.1 #7 · The Reason I went to the Cirque of the Towers
Al Trujillo wrote:
WOW!! That is really impressive!! Well done, Monica!
Thanks, Al. It was worth braving one of the most crowded trailheads for (though this late in the season, it wasn't bad, but still 3 or 4x the number of vehicles I'd expected to see)
p.1 #9 · The Reason I went to the Cirque of the Towers
Jim Dockery wrote:
Wow! I love it Monica. You found the holy grail of MW with a stunning foreground with enough illumination to show some details, but still looks real. Of course the waterfall is what takes it to the next level.
Thanks, Jim. I bet BITD, you were probably fast asleep or telling stories of the day's adventures instead of night photography. The other times I've been there, I've just transited through, though the 1st attempt had 6" of fresh snow (according to the folks at the Boulder gas station/store and "RV turned sideways, blocking the road" and "all the granolas are comin' out of the hills"), so we went to the Utah red rock country instead.
p.1 #13 · The Reason I went to the Cirque of the Towers
jm10_former wrote:
Very nice shot Monica! This is a great spot for a milky way picture and you found a great position to capture it. Thanks for posting.
p.1 #19 · The Reason I went to the Cirque of the Towers
Beautiful capture.
I do think that the star trails cause loss of available detail (it does not look like lens coma), the brightest milky way core is a bit overexposed, and the deep sky color balance seems a bit too purple. That said, we can't see any of this with our naked eyes, so it is the artist's choice how to capture and process the night sky wide fields. Half of the image is your own experience which sounds amazing.
p.1 #20 · The Reason I went to the Cirque of the Towers
This is a stellar composition Monika! I can feel the motion as the Milky Way modulates with the universe!
The water displays another form of motion as well!
I would say your journey to get the end result shown here, was WELL worth it! Now it is a story AND a vision!
Indeed a fine composition!
Dan
