I prefer the landscape. Nice balance of dark sky to foreground that does not look light painted.
Thanks Ben - it looks like landscape is winning the day! I've really been working lately to find scenes lit by just a little moonlight so I can capture a starry night along with a realistic landscape.
Hey Kyle,
It would have been fun to have connected this last weekend as I had gotten up to San Jose in my looping looping travels, in the end Yosemite drew me back the other direction. I have only shot in that area a few times, not enough to be familiar with some nice Milky Way viewing spots, or even just spots good for shooting the stars. I am going to have get up there again and explore that area some more so I feel more familiar.
I like both of these. I like the portrait because I like how the water is channeled down through the bottom of the image. And the landscape version is cool, because the water opens up to the right and provides a nice balance to the rock faces being lit up on the left. I think both work and would have a hard time choosing a preference.
Jim
Hi Jim, this is one of my favorite places to shoot in the Big Sur area - in part because it is just a few miles south of Carmel. I'd be happy to hang out sometime if you're back in the area. This was a really quick shoot - I left the hotel about 8pm, was onsite at 8:45, and back in the car by 10:00. The trail to this location is a little sketchy and I wouldn't have tried it in the dark if I hadn't been there a few times before.
Thanks for your feedback on the shots. I was aiming for the vertical but like how the landscape came out. I also came across some of the pain of shooting at night. When I arrived I set up for the portrait shot before the MY moved into position and the sky was fully dark enough for MW shooting. I focused on the moon (nice when it is in the sky!) and since I use back button focus I usually don't pay attention to it after that. I shot the portrait photo above right at the end of astronomical twilight and then switched to the landscape. The biggest challenge was getting an 80s exposure for the foreground in between cars!
After the landscape I switch back to portrait - zooming in a little more for a comp I decided I really liked and with some darker skies to better show the stars. After shooting the sequence I zoomed in on a file and noticed the stars were soft. Somehow the focus had shifted (maybe while zooming?). Dang it! So I swung the camera to refocus on the moon and re-composed. The sequence came out fine and I went home. Once I got home, though, I realized that by the time I had shot that last sequence the MW had moved too far to the right to really work with the comp - it looked too cramped and cut off. Oh well, back to the one I showed above. At least it has a shooting star
+1 on Ben's comments. I too prefer the landscape variant since it gives me more of a feel for the coastline setting. Both images worked out well.
Thanks a lot Alan!
Incredible star photography!
Thank you Bob!
