David Colombo Photography
Beam Me Up
On my last Sierras trip, I knew that I wanted to try some Milky Way shots up at Mono Lake.... so with a perfectly clear, cloudless New Moon I began my journey.
Trying to do photography in the pitch dark is creepy enough, but when you add in a place like Mono Lake it really kicks it up a notch, so I was starting to feel nervous as I pulled up to the lake, but I was determined to make this happen.
As I was starting to walk out, and look for a comp I happened to notice another photographer standing by himself, and we started to chat. He was waiting for some (no-show) friends and was debating on what to do. After talking for a bit, we agreed to team up and see what we could do. Emboldened with the presence of a companion, we entered the field of Tufas!
We shared some Astrophotography tips, and he had some great light painting equipment, much better than what I had brought. Things could not be better at this point....
Until, suddenly his friends showed up.... all 20 of them! It was pure chaos trying to coordinate over 20 people to get their focus and take a 30sec exposure without anyone in the frame or flashing a light. I almost walked away...
But my friend took charge, and actually got everyone coordinated and working together. It turned out to be one of the most fun nights of photography in my life, and I have quite a few great shots from that evening. This is one of the first shots of the night.
Beam Me Up
On my last Sierras trip, I knew that I wanted to try some Milky Way shots up at Mono Lake.... so with a perfectly clear, cloudless New Moon I began my journey.
Trying to do photography in the pitch dark is creepy enough, but when you add in a place like Mono Lake it really kicks it up a notch, so I was starting to feel nervous as I pulled up to the lake, but I was determined to make this happen.
As I was starting to walk out, and look for a comp I happened to notice another photographer standing by himself, and we started to chat. He was waiting for some (no-show) friends and was debating on what to do. After talking for a bit, we agreed to team up and see what we could do. Emboldened with the presence of a companion, we entered the field of Tufas!
We shared some Astrophotography tips, and he had some great light painting equipment, much better than what I had brought. Things could not be better at this point....
Until, suddenly his friends showed up.... all 20 of them! It was pure chaos trying to coordinate over 20 people to get their focus and take a 30sec exposure without anyone in the frame or flashing a light. I almost walked away...
But my friend took charge, and actually got everyone coordinated and working together. It turned out to be one of the most fun nights of photography in my life, and I have quite a few great shots from that evening. This is one of the first shots of the night.