Milky Way over Arch Rock, Joshua Tree
National park, March 2014 at ~4am
Hello Friends,
In a continued effort to improve my astro-landscape
photography, I recently traveled to Joshua Tree National Park, a dark area with
bright night sky, in Southern California.
There, I participated in a workshops given by master
astro-landscape photographer Brad Goldpaint and we were out in the park for two
nights from sunset to dawn. When
I go out at night for astro photography, I typically tire by 1-2am and so the
plan to stay up and out until dawn concerned me a little bit. But it was an awesome experience
photographing at 3 locations per night capturing startrails, and the Milky Way
that rose after 3am on the southern horizon.
The unique landscape and vegetation in Joshua Tree National Park added
to the rich compositional opportunities. At
night, it feels like being on a different planet walking to the desert landscape in
search of beautiful rock formations and Joshua trees that might point to the
North star.
If you would like to learn how to capture the night sky, please join me for an awesome night above the clouds in my next Night Photo Workshop on May 24-25, 2014. Please read all the
details here.
Joshua Trees framing the North Star. The yellow glow is light pollution
from the city of 29
Palms – the entry to the park.
We were lucky that both nights were mostly clear and allowed seeing the milky way clearly as it rose over the horizon in the late night hours. The quarter moon helped to illuminate the landscape - an extra bonus.
Milky Way over the Arch Rock
Clouds passing by.
On the last morning, clouds came rolling in in the late night hours but that did not hinder us to continue to capture the awesome landscape and the interesting patterns that formed int he sky with Venus and the stars peeking through.
As the light came up early morning, the Joshua Trees seemed to be glowing in the early dawn.
The quiet landscape, the vastness of the sky and our Universe invites to meditation and after my camera is set up I often lie down and gaze at the sky - it makes all the efforts worthwhile.
I returned to my accommodations each night around 6 am, exhausted but happy with the wonderful experience during the night.
Til next time,
Meggi
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If you would like to learn how to capture the night sky, please join me for an awesome night above the clouds in my next Night Astro-Landscape Photo Workshop on May 24-25, 2014.
