I'm a big fan of Milky Way (MW) astroscapes and shooting the MW inside a big arch has been on my bucket list for an along time. Problem is that aside from the obvious ones at Arches NP, it's not easy to find one that aligns well with the MW core. This one is the biggest arch in NM, and it works well for a month or two.
This shoot is not for a night hike so I had to sleep there and moving around in absolute darkness is not for the faint of heart (I won't repeat this!). The good news is that as of now, you can be the only person around this beauty at night. It's an awesome experience!
Love it!
Beautiful framing of the galactic center. Wondering about some of the technical details...
- Was the light on the foreground natural?
- Was the sky a tracked exposure, and was it stacked?
- What hardware did you use?
I'm also a huge fan of MW photography.
kirbic wrote:
Love it!
Beautiful framing of the galactic center. Wondering about some of the technical details...
- Was the light on the foreground natural?
- Was the sky a tracked exposure, and was it stacked?
- What hardware did you use?
I'm also a huge fan of MW photography.
Thanks!
OK, here go the details:
1. light on foreground: no, it wasn't natural; these are the darkest skies in the country so I used a couple of super-faint little flashlights - I aim for old-style non-LEDs and use near-dead batteries.
2. this is a layered shot: one for the sky; another for the foreground. Combined in PS.
3. sky: stacked. I have a tracker but tracking the MW through an arch is a nightmare of PP.
4. hardware: sony a7rv + Zeiss Batis 18mm/1.8
Thanks for the deets! I thought you might have light-painted, but frankly you did such a nice job that it really was not apparent. The Zeiss Batis 18 sure did a nice job.
