tylerjacobs
Milky Way over Black Elk Peak
*This is a re-edit of photos taken this summer. I have a bad habit of rushing edits on photos that I'm really excited about and not taking the time to do them right. You can look at the old one if you'd like, but I'd prefer you not. I won't delete it though. ;)
This was stop #1 of a planned four stop vacation out west, starting in the Black Hills and ending in Shoshone National Forest, however, it became the only stop after car issues necessitated returning home rather than risk breaking down on a remote road in the Bighorn Mountains. This is the end result of a total of 5-6 images taken on Black Elk Peak over the course of about five hours. The foreground shot (including the peaks in the distance) was taken shortly after sunset while there was still enough light to capture the details in the rock (ISO 640), and then hours later, I captured the stars in several different shots at ISO 6400 at 20 seconds each. It was a bit of guessing to line up the shots after such a long time between the shots, and the result required quite a bit of Photoshop surgery to hide the seams and make things look right. Unfortunately, the level of wind between when I hiked up and when the Milky Way was out made planting my gear in one spot impossible/reckless.
I was blown away at how the dark the skies were here, and how visible the Milky Way was to the naked eye. I've been photographing the Milky Way for some time now, but I've never seen it so clearly. I am very bummed that I wasn't able to get out to Wyoming for the second leg of this trip, the second stop I had planned out would've been even darker and more remote.
Still, I am very satisfied with this photo and it was a rewarding experience getting to the summit and weathering the elements to get it.
Milky Way over Black Elk Peak
*This is a re-edit of photos taken this summer. I have a bad habit of rushing edits on photos that I'm really excited about and not taking the time to do them right. You can look at the old one if you'd like, but I'd prefer you not. I won't delete it though. ;)
This was stop #1 of a planned four stop vacation out west, starting in the Black Hills and ending in Shoshone National Forest, however, it became the only stop after car issues necessitated returning home rather than risk breaking down on a remote road in the Bighorn Mountains. This is the end result of a total of 5-6 images taken on Black Elk Peak over the course of about five hours. The foreground shot (including the peaks in the distance) was taken shortly after sunset while there was still enough light to capture the details in the rock (ISO 640), and then hours later, I captured the stars in several different shots at ISO 6400 at 20 seconds each. It was a bit of guessing to line up the shots after such a long time between the shots, and the result required quite a bit of Photoshop surgery to hide the seams and make things look right. Unfortunately, the level of wind between when I hiked up and when the Milky Way was out made planting my gear in one spot impossible/reckless.
I was blown away at how the dark the skies were here, and how visible the Milky Way was to the naked eye. I've been photographing the Milky Way for some time now, but I've never seen it so clearly. I am very bummed that I wasn't able to get out to Wyoming for the second leg of this trip, the second stop I had planned out would've been even darker and more remote.
Still, I am very satisfied with this photo and it was a rewarding experience getting to the summit and weathering the elements to get it.