Dipping in Color

During my San Francisco layover in August, I met up with Peter Ensrud at Point Reyes National Seashore. While sipping on a beer (thanks Peter for bringing it along) and waiting for the Milky Way to move into position over our main foreground target, we noticed some strong bioluminescence below the North facing cliffs to our right.

 

Despite being a bit disappointed that this was the wrong direction for the Milky Way, I moved my camera over and captured the scene. After shooting the foreground frames, I resisted the temptation to turn the camera back to shoot the Miky Way, which I could have used to produce a totally fake, but nice looking composite.

 

Instead, I framed higher and captured a few untracked exposures of the 'boring' Northern sky with the Big Dipper above the bioluminescent waters.

 

To my surprise, a strong airglow was bathing the horizon in color. The result is not the typical Milky Way nightscape, but staying true to the scene payed off nicely.

 

EXIF

Canon EOS 6D

Samyang 24mm f/1.4 @ f/2.4

Foreground:

Single exposure of 90s @ ISO3200

Sky:

Stack of 5 x15s @ ISO6400

Done