So one of the benefits of having groups stampede through my shot every 15 minutes was hearing the guides point out certain characteristics about the different formations that Martin and I were shooting. Usually it was only after the fact that I would look back and see the buffalo or eagle. In this case, I was all the way home and working on this shot before I found out that this formation is sometimes known as the Windy Lady. Depending on the angle, I think you can make out something that resembles a face, long flowing hair and and a neck. In either case, I thought it was the most amazing formation in the lower canyon, and shot it from just about every angle imaginable. You might see this shot reappear in the coming weeks as either an piece of chewing gum stuck on a shoe or a uvula. :)
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Tags: Lower Antelope Canyon Page Arizona Slot Canyon Windy Lady Nikkor 14-24 2.8 HDR Antelope Canyon
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Sure on this shining night
Of star made shadows round,
Kindness must watch for me
This side the ground.
The late year lies down the north.
All is healed, all is health.
High summer holds the earth.
Hearts all whole.
Sure on this shining night
I weep for wonder wand'ring far alone
Of shadows on the stars.
-James Agee
Another shot from Joshua Tree taken last June when there were only four of us shooting in silence in the White Tank Campground. As I was thinking back on that night, the above text from James Agee came to mind. What an incredible night.
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Tags: Joshua Tree National Park Milky Way White Tank Campground
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For over 5000 years, the bristlecone pine trees of the White Mountains have been reaching towards the stars. It is believed several of these trees are among the oldest living organisms on earth. The shoots of these particular trees were already starting to grow as Stonehenge, the city of Troy, and the tombs of the Pharaohs were being built. It was a truly humbling experience to stand in front of these trees that have been growing in silence in these mountains for hundreds upon hundreds of years.
This particular tree has been photographed by several landscape photographers but I hadn't come across any photos of it until I became interested in Milky Way photography. After finding some amazing photos online, I set off a few weeks ago with hopes of photographing them only to find the entire stretch of the Owens valley covered in clouds and smoke from the area fires. I finally had to give up and ended my day at Olmsted Point in Yosemite instead.
Last Tuesday, I set off again and was pleased to find only partly cloudy skies as I arrived 5 1/2 hours later. There were only a couple of cars left in the parking area as I arrived, but it seemed they were all on their way out. It wasn't long before I was the only one left in the Schulman Grove. I was making all kinds of noise as I set off on the upper trail, but whenever I stopped to take a shot, the silence around me was deafening. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember quite where this particular tree was, and I spent nearly 3 hours hiking to the top of a couple of different ridges looking for it. Finally, as the last of the light was fading, I decided to head further down the lower trail, even though the trail led away from the trees and out into what appeared to be nothing worth shooting. After several minutes of hiking, the trail suddenly ducked around a bend and my tree finally came into view.
I looked at dozens of gnarled and twisted trees that evening, but none of them came close to this one. Special thanks to Ryan Engstrom and Michael Bandy for helping me out by confirming that this Tree was located not far off the trail in the Shulman Grove area of the park. There were several other trees that I wanted to shoot, but those will have to wait until my next trip.
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Tags: Bristlecone Pine White Mountains Milky Way
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For about 20 minutes, I was the only photographer camped out in front of Arch Rock in Joshua Tree National Park, waiting for the Milky Way to Rise. Then suddenly....it was rush hour. About 10 people came around the corner, lights blazing in all directions. Then a couple more. Someone moved in front of someone else and words were exchanged. In spite of the chaos, we finally all settled down and actually managed to get some shots off before another random flashlight would go on again. Ultimately, we all decided it was probably better that someone not fall off a rock and break a leg than to put up with another 5 minutes of flashlights destroying somebody else's shot.
In this particular shot, you can see a bit of the airlgow effect that I mentioned in my last upload. The frustrating thing is that the Milky Way still wasn't quite high enough to clear the arch from where I was standing, but it was 12:30 AM and I still needed to drive back to Orange County. I am still amazed at the level of detail that the camera can bring out in near darkness. The rocks are lit only by ambient light in this shot, and I didn't see HALF that many stars as I was shooting. Very much looking forward to trying this again in June and maybe July as well.
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Tags: Joshua Tree National Park Arch Rock Milky Way White Tank Campground
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Last weekend, I suddenly found myself with a relatively new Mercedes (My Tundra got smashed and this was a rental, long story) and a free weekend. I had been waiting for an excuse to head out to Joshua Tree National Park, and after getting a Mercedes which needed to be driven combined with the Camelopardalid Meteor Shower due to show up at 10 PM, I jumped in the car and took off for the dessert.
Long story short, I spent two mights shooting the White Tank area of Joshua Tree. On Friday night, the meteors never really showed up but the sky was amazing. On Saturday night, I got out there a bit earlier and scouted out my locations a bit more. I had a decent spot to shoot the rock arch and shot the Milky Way coming up over the Rock Arch for almost 2 hours before packing up. It was nearly 1 AM when I turned around to shoot one last pano, and that is the shot that you see here.
The irony with this particular shot is that I had just recently become fascinated by the phenomenon known as "airglow."Airglow is caused by various processes in the upper atmosphere, such as the recombination of atoms, which were photoionized by the sun during the day, luminescence caused by cosmic rays striking the upper atmosphere and chemiluminescence caused mainly by oxygen and nitrogen reacting with hydroxyl ions at heights of a few hundred kilometres. (Wiki)
I had just been mentioning to some of my buddies that it would be great to be able to shoot it at some point, but from what I have read, it didn't seem to be a very common occurrence. In fact, the night before, I took an almost identical pano at exactly the same time, and there was no trace of airglow to be seen. But in this particular set of shots, the greenish streaks along the horizon aren't some type of white balance problem. They are, apparently, particles in the upper atmosphere that are glowing after the sun has long since set. I should probably also mention that this phenomenon is not quite the same thing as the Borealis.
It certainly isn't the cleanest pano I've ever shot as I bumped the tripod and accidentally tweaked the focus too far as I grabbed my camera out of the bag in a near stupor, but I just wanted to post this shot as I've never witnessed this before, and I honestly didn't notice it until I got home and began looking through my shots. I'll be headed up to Yosemite this Summer to shoot the Milky Way from Glacier Point, and I'm hoping I get lucky there as well.
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Tags: Airglow Milky Way Joshua Tree National Park White Tank Campground Pano Astrophotography Nikon 14-24, 2.8
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