Just Before the Dawning

Gallery: LandscapePosted October 17, 2014174 views5 comments

Fall view of the Milky way from Bear Lake in Rocky Mtn National Park.

This is a stitched composite of 20 images, each shot at f 2.8, 25 sec., ISO 3200 using 28mm lens. Camera was mounted on Gigapan. Field of view is West NW to East SE about 170 degrees total horizontal view and from straight up to the horizon. Projected onto a flat plane there is some stretching of the stars near the top. Raw image is 50" x 40" at 300dpi.

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Pat Sampson on October 17, 2014 at 7:14 AM

Beautiful image John. I've been planning to do Sprague Lake and just haven't mustered up the initiative to get it done. The sky and silhouettes look great in this. My only reservation is the fg branches and I find them mildly distracting. The stitching looks good to me and the glow and reflections add a lot. I'd love to see it large and printed.

pat

Registered on May 19, 2007, 953 Posts, 15989 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on October 17, 2014 at 7:59 PM

The trees silhouetted against the sky make a fine foreground and the top half of the sky has a terrific star field. I agree with Pat about the tree silhouettes in the lake being a distraction. It also looks like the horizon is tilted down to the left. Is the brightness at the bottom from "the valley" (Denver, Boulder, etc.) or sunrise? I'm sure that the extra brightness is masking the stars in the bottom half of the sky. This definitely has the potential to make a redo worthwhile.

Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments

Comment posted by John Freeman on October 17, 2014 at 10:11 PM

Pat & Mark,
Thanks for the comments. I think the light on the horizon is due mostly to the sunrise. Denver & Boulder are further to the right from the right side. Estes Park would be further to the left. Possibly due to Loveland??? This was shot at about 3:30AM. When I was shooting this that yellow glow was barely visible to the naked eye. As far as horizon is concerned when one stitches a half hemisphere there is some distortion at edges due to projection onto flat plane. I adjusted the horizon to yield vertical trees. As it is, the trees tend to lean toward the center of the image. I guess branches in the lake reflection are a matter of personal taste. As I walked around the lake looking for a good composition, I actually choose this location because of the silhouetted bush.

Registered on September 27, 2013, 16 Posts, 33 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Zelinka on October 18, 2014 at 12:42 PM

This has an epic feel - I like the dark dust lanes you captured in the Milky Way overhead.

Registered on August 20, 2007, 206 Posts, 998 Comments

Comment posted by Ryan Shain on October 19, 2014 at 10:48 AM

I like this image John. I think it needs to be viewed large to really appreciate how all encompassing nature to this image. I am on the fence on the foreground bush. My eye seems to be coming back to that bush. I feel some free space there may be better to enjoy the stars above. The silhouetted trees add a lot to this image ad does the beautiful glow. Sweet image !!!!

Registered on February 20, 2007, 226 Posts, 4571 Comments