Milky Way Over Crater Lake
Milkyway Above Crater Lake
This was easily my most challenging shot from my 8 day trip to the Northwest last July. To start with, July is already pretty late if you are trying to shoot the full arch of the Milky Way over the horizon, so I knew I might not be able to fit it into the frame...but I thought it was worth a try.
Secondly, when I pulled in to Crater Lake about 30 minutes before sunset after driving for 16 hours I found that the entire Western side of the rim was closing at 8:45 PM for road work. This meant no sunset and presumably no Milky Way shot. They said they would be leading caravans through until 9 PM and then everything on that side of the park would be closed. I hadn't seen anything online about the entire West side of the lake being closed.
Undeterred, I followed along behind the car in front of me when they allowed us in, but I ditched out of the line as soon as we passed the Watchman Overlook. While the other cars dutifully exited the West side, I pulled over to a pull out and just waited after I passed all of the equipment and another flag man. I was clearly out of the construction area and I was hoping that once it got dark, no one would notice me.
Sure enough, several more caravans passed me and a few construction trucks, but apparently no one cared that I was parked in a pull out off of the road. I took a short nap and waited for the sky to grow dark enough. When I got out of the car, I instantly regretted not packing for the mountains as the wind was howling and it supposed to get into the 40's over night. It was almost a mile walking back in the dark to the Watchman Overlook. Just as I had feared, the arch of the Milky Way was already high in the sky, but I set up my tripod as quickly as I could and managed to grab several shots before the arch was directly overhead. I used the Rokinon 12mm 2.8 fisheye which seemed to well in this instance as I was able to pull the arch into the frame. I think the lake and foreground was a 2 minute exposure and I blended it with a 25 second exposure for the Milky Way. I only had a few tries before the arch was out of the shot.
After heading back to the car, I kept driving North until I had cleared the restricted area and pulled into another parking lot where several other folks were already camped out for the night. I tried to get some sleep, but the Prius kept bouncing in the high wind and I finally gave up around 2 AM and just kept driving North to my next stop which was Proxy Falls.
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Thank you so much for your views and comments! If you have specific questions or need to get in touch with me, please be sure to send me a message via flickr mail, or feel free to contact me via one of the following:
Blog | Website | Facebook | Instagram | 500px | Twitter | Google +
Milky Way Over Crater Lake
Milkyway Above Crater Lake
This was easily my most challenging shot from my 8 day trip to the Northwest last July. To start with, July is already pretty late if you are trying to shoot the full arch of the Milky Way over the horizon, so I knew I might not be able to fit it into the frame...but I thought it was worth a try.
Secondly, when I pulled in to Crater Lake about 30 minutes before sunset after driving for 16 hours I found that the entire Western side of the rim was closing at 8:45 PM for road work. This meant no sunset and presumably no Milky Way shot. They said they would be leading caravans through until 9 PM and then everything on that side of the park would be closed. I hadn't seen anything online about the entire West side of the lake being closed.
Undeterred, I followed along behind the car in front of me when they allowed us in, but I ditched out of the line as soon as we passed the Watchman Overlook. While the other cars dutifully exited the West side, I pulled over to a pull out and just waited after I passed all of the equipment and another flag man. I was clearly out of the construction area and I was hoping that once it got dark, no one would notice me.
Sure enough, several more caravans passed me and a few construction trucks, but apparently no one cared that I was parked in a pull out off of the road. I took a short nap and waited for the sky to grow dark enough. When I got out of the car, I instantly regretted not packing for the mountains as the wind was howling and it supposed to get into the 40's over night. It was almost a mile walking back in the dark to the Watchman Overlook. Just as I had feared, the arch of the Milky Way was already high in the sky, but I set up my tripod as quickly as I could and managed to grab several shots before the arch was directly overhead. I used the Rokinon 12mm 2.8 fisheye which seemed to well in this instance as I was able to pull the arch into the frame. I think the lake and foreground was a 2 minute exposure and I blended it with a 25 second exposure for the Milky Way. I only had a few tries before the arch was out of the shot.
After heading back to the car, I kept driving North until I had cleared the restricted area and pulled into another parking lot where several other folks were already camped out for the night. I tried to get some sleep, but the Prius kept bouncing in the high wind and I finally gave up around 2 AM and just kept driving North to my next stop which was Proxy Falls.
--------------
Thank you so much for your views and comments! If you have specific questions or need to get in touch with me, please be sure to send me a message via flickr mail, or feel free to contact me via one of the following:
Blog | Website | Facebook | Instagram | 500px | Twitter | Google +