Big Bend -Santa Elena Canyon Nightscape

I made a trip out to Big Bend National Park last fall specifically to see if I could photograph the Milky Way rising out of Santa Elena Canyon. On my first night in the park, I went and stood on the banks of the Rio Grande and stared up at the canyon. When it was dark enough to see the Milky Way it was rising right out of the middle of the canyon. I was using three cameras set up on three tripods. Even with the long exposures one has as night it was not easy and I was moving from camera to camera.

Planning and luck paid off with getting the shot I was hoping for. Canon 6D with Bower (Samyang) 14mm lens @ f/2.8 for 30 seconds at ISO 12,800.

See the longer story and more images on my blog.

Very nice Darren. I'll have to check your web site to see if you give any post processing information. I've noticed a lot of night photography lately. Tim Ernst has published a lot of nice work recently and I just finished an instructional video on the subject on the Perfect Photo Suite site. Your photo brings back a lot of good memories of spending the night almost at this same spot ~40 years ago...so many stars! Hope I can get back to Big Bend N.P. before too long.

Great image, just too many people and lights around here. I do ejoy reading about your adventures and seeing the images you capture.

Thanks guys. I will have to check Tim's website. I miss him posting here.

Go back to Big Bend if you can.

I photographed the stars last summer along the Mississippi. The hardest part was the long days there. I actually wonder if you ever get the aurora?