From one night in Big Sur, the milky way sets over Pfeiffer Rock. Composite with manual blend, 360 sec single exposure at 25mm for the beach, 40x 12 sec exposures at 35mm for the sky, assembled with Deep Sky Stacker.

Hope you like it.

Tags:   Oria Mike Mike Oria photography Pfeiffer Rock Big Sur Milky Way galaxy galactic core stars' astro astrophotography www.mikeoria.com Pentax 645 645Z

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From 2022, this was a trip to the east side that did not disappoint. Miguel and I spent the entire night here shooting the milky way and then he hiked back to the truck to sleep and I decided to mud up my boots along this soft marshy area and wait for sunrise. This moment was completely calm and silent, except for the line of birds flying through the frame, and my shutter clicks.

This is a multi-frame, single exposure pano using the 55mm/2.8 on the 645Z with some levels adjustments and ample dodging. I shot the left side frame 1 hr before sunrise and slowly grabbed frames every 10mins or so, trying to time the pano to conclude with the sun popping over the edge.

Ya really gotta view it full width across your wide monitor.

Thanks.

Tags:   55mm 55/2.8 DFA55 PENTAX Pentax 645Z 645 645Z LANDSCAPE outdoor Mono Lake COUNTY Lake shoreline morning sun sunrise stars sunstar MIKE ORIA Mike Oria Photography www.mikeoria.com pano panorama panoramic orange Blue Sierra Nevada

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From a prior trip to Mono Lake, Miguel and I did some light painting at these sand tufas under a moonless sky.

These intricate and very delicate sand tufas formed naturally while submerged under Mono Lake and are unearthed when the wind blows the loose sand away. There are numerous sand tufas still buried, waiting to reveal their beauty.

With no extraneous light except for the milky way, I used my cell phone screen to bathe this structure in red and yellow colored light. With more than one photographer working the same spot, it can be tricky coordinating light painting so as not to spoil the other person's exposure. We pretty much got into a rhythm of taking turns and calling out "I'm open" and "closed".

This is a blend of about 6 light painted frames plus about 30 sky exposures.

I hope you like it!

Tags:   Mike Oria Mono Lake sand tufa tufas towers lake Pentax 645Z 25mm DFA25 Night Mike Oria Photography galaxy galactic Milky Way stars astrophotography Sky Sierra Sierras Nevada Mountains Mono long exposure

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Just when the world has officially become comet fatigued, I finally get around to processing this one from Stinson Beach on 10/19. Every attempt, I made a dumb mistake, preventing me from getting a better quality image. In this case, I switched to the crop sensor body and the 450mm lens and decided to use the built-in Astrotracer, which moves the camera sensor in sync with Earth's rotation, fair enough. Well, the beautiful spot in the sand I selected during sunset, closed 1 hr after sunset and the ranger kicked me out just as i was focused and ready to begin tracking. I had to pack the gear and drive around looking for a second site which was not easy, eventually heading up Hwy 1 above the town. The only problem here was my GPS was blocked by the steep bluff behind me, preventing me from acquiring a GPS lock, so I wasted time trying to figure out why the stars were streaking. Finally, I gave up, shut off the tracker and just started shooting high ISO 1 sec shots. But the coastal fog laid in pretty soon and that was that.

This was stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, and best I'm gonna get this time around. Of course the comet will retuen in like 81,000 years, so we good.

Tags:   Comet A3 ATLAS Tsuchinshan Mike Oria Pentax K3II astro stars night nig mik Mike Oria k Mike Oria Photography www Tshuchinshan ATLAS astrotracer Pentax K3 3II K3II

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Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan–ATLAS over the Pacific coast.

This is a composite.

I made it out 5 nights last week to observe the comet. Here is a stack of 20 sec frames using the built in astrotracer feature on the Pentax K3 II.Pentax DSLRs have a magnetically floating sensor, allowing the sensor to move in sync with the earth's rotation, directed by the built in GPS in the camera.

There is a healthy bit of 'movie magic' applied to the processing here, going for more of a pretty picture than scientifically accurate.

Hope you like it!

Tags:   astrophotography astro AstroTracer PENTAX K3II K3 MIKE ORIA Mike Oria Photography www.mikeoria.com comet A3 C/2023 Tsuchinshan ATLAS Night long exposure tracker tracked stacked composite Sonoma coast Pacific Ocean

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