My intention was to photograph the Milky Way over the Abiquiu reservoir. But, as it's often the case, the clouds had other plans. They looked like they were going to dissipate but that wasn't so. Instead, they became denser as the evening went on.
I had not done a night shot since last year and I was determined to get one, Milky Way or not.
So I set up this composition, with a Chamisa bush in the foreground. My friend Greg had the wherewithal to bring a couple of camping chairs, so we sat out in the warm night and a slight breeze and had a good time urging the cloud to move on. Well, as evident in this photo, it was unmoved, literally, by our efforts.
I took several shots of the foreground bush during nautical twilight, some illuminated by my flashlight, some by the spillover from passing headlights. I don't know which was which anymore.
I selected the best foreground shot and combined it with the best sky shot. All in all it came out pretty nice.
The clouds are illuminated by the wastefully spilled light of the towns of Española and Los Alamos. On the other hand, that spilled light delineates the horizon nicely.
Tags: LensTagger New Mexico Abiquiu lake night astro astro photography dusk Milky Way stars blue hour landscape landscapes outside outdoors nature
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From my archives: A night spent under the stars in the Jemez mountains in New Mexico. The galaxy rises majestically over the big rock in a very clear sky.
Shot with a cheap Sony kit lens.
Tags: New Mexico night astro astro photography dusk Milky Way stars blue hour landscape landscapes outside outdoors nature
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An alternate shot from my visit to Pueblo Pintado, 15 miles south of Chaco Canyon. The ruin in its heyday was an outlier to the Chaco Canyon complex, as I understand it, a kind of way station. But, who knows, it may have had more or less significance at the time. Now it's significance lies in the preservation of its architectural style and as an example of the exquisite craftsmanship of its builders.
Tags: LensTagger New Mexico night astro astro photography dusk Milky Way stars blue hour landscape landscapes outside outdoors nature Pueblo Pintado
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Another shot from the night spent at the Elephant Feet in Arizona.
These buttes are what is left over from the now eroded hillside that once stood there. That seems to be true for the entire Colorado plateau, left overs of what was once there millions of years ago.
The processes of erosion and other geologic forces provide a connection with deep time, stimulating me to imagine what that time must have been like and how the land must have looked.
I like to set up two cameras with different focal lengths for my nightscape scenes to frame another composition of the same foreground. This way I get more out of the time I spend photographing at night. And this practice has saved my bacon several times when one of them turned out to have some kind of flaw.
Tags: Arizona landscape landscapes landscape photography outside nature astro photography nightscapes night stars Milky Way galaxy Lens Tagger Rokinon 12mm f2
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After several attempts I finally hit a clear night at Pueblo Pintado.
The ruin is all that's left over from the ancient outpost of Chaco Canyon. It once had over 40 rooms and resembled a fortress. I felt like one of the ancients when I looked up at the Milky Way and all the stars that were shining so brightly.
There is little light pollution marring the night sky here, so this is pretty much the way the ancients saw it.
I chose a slightly longer focal length here to make it look like the galactic core is looming closely over the old stone walls.
Did I ever make it clear that spending a few hours under the night sky is one of my favorite things to do in life?
Leica Elmarit 35mm f 2.8
Tags: New Mexico night astro astro photography dusk Milky Way stars blue hour landscape landscapes outside outdoors nature Pueblo Pintado vintage lens Leitz Leica Elmarit 35mm f 2.8 ABigFave
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