Cosmic Basin

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
This from the beginning of August when Alisa and I went to American Basin to shoot wildflowers, and we got tons of awesome wildflower photos from there with the bloom being a week or two later then normal due to the extreme snow this year. The major road into it got taken out by landslides the day after we got there so the basin got quieter and less crowded each day to the point where it was just us.

So while the trip was about wildflowers, I can't help but start out with a night time photo. The sky rapidly clouded up after this, and it was about the best time to get out and shoot. I might have gone out and shot one other night.

In this shot there is a meteor racing by Jupiter. The thin clouds reduce the sharpness of the stars but also helps add a cool glow. The Milky Way is hidden in there somewhere for the viewer to find. This was shot on a dark new moon night. It's a single exposure with the ground layer overexposed by almost 3 stops in the raw conversion. It was shot with the Nikon D850 and the Sigma 14mm f1.8.

All comments are welcome,

Jim

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AlanLichty

Moderator
I like this shot much better than the first one you posted from here - this has a much sharper foreground and color balance. Nice having a waterfall feature along with a sky show. Neat combination.
 

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
This is wonderful, Jim. I can see the clumps of columbine in the foreground and it makes me severely jealous.
Thanks Doug. I wish I had gotten them bigger in the frame looking back, but then it wouldn’t have balanced with the waterfall and I might gave started to have focus issues with being too close to the flowers.
 

Mike Lewis

Staff Member
Very fun image - I think the clouds added some interest to the sky in this particular case, although I for one would never want to vote against your steadily more impressive Milky way capturing skills either. But at least in this shot, I do not feel you have lost anything but rather gained a more unique perspective. The foreground is no slouch either, with nice detail, subdued and realistic looking colors, and a nice piece of flowing water thrown in for good measure. Very nice indeed.

ML
 

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
Very fun image - I think the clouds added some interest to the sky in this particular case, although I for one would never want to vote against your steadily more impressive Milky way capturing skills either. But at least in this shot, I do not feel you have lost anything but rather gained a more unique perspective. The foreground is no slouch either, with nice detail, subdued and realistic looking colors, and a nice piece of flowing water thrown in for good measure. Very nice indeed.

ML
Thanks Mike. As much as I like Milky Ways, in some ways they end up being very much the same. So I always enjoy when the sky is partly cloudy. I think the clouds playing peekaboo with the stars and Milky Way provides a constantly change scene with tons of variety.

Yeah, it was nice to be able to set this up with such a rich foreground.
 

pepper

Well-Known Member
wow, i love how the shooting star and river seem to be racing towards the mountains.
 

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
wow, i love how the shooting star and river seem to be racing towards the mountains.
Thanks! It was pretty cool to see that shooting through the sky and hoping it would show up nicely in the image too.
 

Jim Dockery

Well-Known Member
Beautiful - another Jim Fox signature astro shot with great light and color balance on the earth. I also like the dreamy glow the thin clouds give the stars. I'm also with you that you don't need the MW for a great astro shot.
 

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
Beautiful - another Jim Fox signature astro shot with great light and color balance on the earth. I also like the dreamy glow the thin clouds give the stars. I'm also with you that you don't need the MW for a great astro shot.
Thank you Jim for those kind words. I really enjoy the way the night sky seems to speak to me.
 
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