Celestial Existence

Gallery: LandscapePosted September 1, 2012944 views37 comments

The Milky Way and millions of other stars above Mt Adams and a field of lupine and paintbrush. Goat Rocks Wilderness, Washington, August 2012.

This is another image from our recent 4 day backpacking trip in the Goat Rocks. This was the only clear night while we were out and I took full advantage of the conditions. To me it seemed like the wildflowers were all looking up and admiring the stars just like I was while creating this image.

Nikon D800, 14-24 Nikkor at 14mm. I absolutely love this camera/lens combo for night images!

6 image blend using the "auto-blend layers" function in CS6 plus some manual hand blending.
- 5 images for DOF in the foreground flowers. 1/4 sec at f/8, ISO 400. These images were shot ~20 mins after the sun had set. (8:20 PM)
- 1 image for the stars/mountain/clouds. 30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 3200. This image was captured about 90 mins after the first set of images (10:00 PM)

Thanks for taking a look and for any comments/suggestions you have. Larger version is provided. Please view in a dark room if possible.

Thanks for all of the comments on my previous image
"Morning View". I'm very excited that the image was chosen as the Weekly Pick (my first) in the landscape gallery!

Comments

37 comments

Comment posted by Verdon on September 1, 2012 at 2:16 PM

AWESOME, AMAZING AND THANK YOU FOR SHARING THE FINISHING TECHS , LOVE IT!!!

Registered on June 10, 2011, 147 Posts, 1444 Comments

Comment posted by Joerg Bonner on September 1, 2012 at 2:26 PM

this one is simply amaaaazzing!!! absolutely beautiful!!

Registered on September 5, 2011, 44 Posts, 221 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Metternich on September 1, 2012 at 2:34 PM

As* kicking in every way!

Registered on June 19, 2009, 276 Posts, 6240 Comments

Comment posted by John&Patty Benway on September 1, 2012 at 2:43 PM

Simply beautiful Scott.
John

Registered on May 12, 2006, 626 Posts, 8700 Comments

Comment posted by Andreas Resch on September 1, 2012 at 3:05 PM

Wonderful. Thank for the technical details.

Registered on November 14, 2007, 322 Posts, 6101 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Bristol on September 1, 2012 at 3:05 PM

Wow! This is Wonderful! Nice work Scott.

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

Registered on February 1, 2004, 752 Posts, 14140 Comments

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on September 1, 2012 at 3:08 PM

No nits! Wish I was there! The 14-24 is a good lens on almost any camera.

Registered on July 24, 2006, 2741 Posts, 12349 Comments

Comment posted by Daniel Rappaport on September 1, 2012 at 3:38 PM

This is really cool. Especially like the flowers peaking through the true black darkness.

Registered on September 9, 2009, 294 Posts, 2006 Comments

Comment posted by Kah Kit Yoong on September 1, 2012 at 3:39 PM

Stunning. Your best yet?

Registered on September 27, 2006, 636 Posts, 10682 Comments

Comment posted by Navin Sarma on September 1, 2012 at 4:31 PM

Absolutely amazing. A perfect 10. Really well done, a technical.masterpiece. I especially like the way the light hits the flowers

Registered on July 17, 2011, 233 Posts, 1373 Comments

Comment posted by Jeff Wiebe on September 1, 2012 at 4:44 PM

Great shot! Lots to look at and like here!

Registered on July 24, 2006, 102 Posts, 772 Comments

Comment posted by Nathan Apodaca on September 1, 2012 at 6:58 PM

This made me quite excited when I saw this. The whole image is great, and edited to appear natural looking. Thanks for including the details on how you captured this amazing scene! If I could dare make a comment

, is there a way to tone down that bright spot on the right side of the horizon?

Registered on November 16, 2011, 67 Posts, 1127 Comments

Comment posted by Jaymes Dempsey on September 1, 2012 at 7:27 PM

Stunning, stunning, STUNNING. This is just awestriking. The foreground, the sky, and the horizon...everything perfect.

Registered on June 28, 2010, 47 Posts, 590 Comments

Comment posted by Nancy Lea Sandy on September 1, 2012 at 8:04 PM

Absolutely stunning. don't think it can get much better than this.

Registered on January 24, 2011, 576 Posts, 6942 Comments

Comment posted by Joseph Campisi on September 1, 2012 at 8:39 PM

Just. Wow.

Registered on November 24, 2008, 304 Posts, 3211 Comments

Comment posted by Morris McClung on September 1, 2012 at 9:56 PM

This is really a sweet shot. Excellent work on the blend.

Registered on May 7, 2007, 670 Posts, 19650 Comments

Comment posted by Karen Kane on September 1, 2012 at 10:28 PM

WOW! Awesome - thank you for sharing

Registered on August 4, 2012, 66 Posts, 726 Comments

Comment posted by Kyle L. Krause on September 1, 2012 at 11:09 PM

Wow Scott, just stunning. One of the best night time processed image I've seen.

Registered on June 15, 2010, 29 Posts, 605 Comments

Comment posted by John Williams on September 1, 2012 at 11:22 PM

What they said. Mind-blowing shot Scott!

Registered on September 6, 2007, 221 Posts, 5985 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Kennedy on September 1, 2012 at 11:37 PM

Absolutely beautiful Scott! Excellent work with the camera and the post processing.

Registered on March 9, 2009, 79 Posts, 676 Comments

Comment posted by David Edwards on September 2, 2012 at 5:23 AM

Awesome shot Scott. Love the purple color theme. The Milky Way is beautifully captured and the highlights of the flowers in the dark fg really sets it off.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 142 Posts, 2623 Comments

Comment posted by Matt Anderson on September 2, 2012 at 10:33 AM

LIKE VERDON SAID, AMAZING. LOVE IT.
lol
I'll stop yelling now. ;)
Wonderful work Scott.

Registered on September 6, 2007, 346 Posts, 2696 Comments

Comment posted by Floris van Breugel on September 2, 2012 at 1:52 PM

Just lovely, Scott!

Registered on December 19, 2008, 306 Posts, 4840 Comments

Comment posted by Sandipan Dutta on September 2, 2012 at 2:19 PM

This is brilliant. Thanks for sharing.

Registered on March 9, 2009, 171 Posts, 493 Comments

Comment posted by Gary McGhee on September 2, 2012 at 2:30 PM

Stunning photo Scott, the sky looks amazing.

Gary.

Registered on April 15, 2010, 142 Posts, 2416 Comments

Comment posted by Tonia Graves on September 2, 2012 at 5:05 PM

Outstanding! Great vision and processing to make it all come together!

Registered on October 29, 2011, 92 Posts, 1035 Comments

Comment posted by Jared Warren on September 2, 2012 at 7:00 PM

Wow- this is truly stunning. Thanks for sharing pp details.

Registered on May 11, 2012, 84 Posts, 931 Comments

Comment posted by Marc Ward on September 2, 2012 at 8:19 PM

This is stunning

Registered on February 26, 2009, 304 Posts, 1365 Comments

Comment posted by Alex Mody on September 3, 2012 at 11:16 PM

This is so good!

Registered on December 25, 2007, 163 Posts, 1896 Comments

Comment posted by Aaron Feinberg on September 4, 2012 at 2:02 AM

Freakin sick. Great work

aF

Registered on October 26, 2009, 399 Posts, 2789 Comments

Comment posted by Soubhik Patranabis on September 4, 2012 at 12:30 PM

Excellent shot !

Registered on January 25, 2010, 54 Posts, 610 Comments

Comment posted by Yiming Hu on September 4, 2012 at 4:41 PM

Fantastic shot, Scott.

Registered on April 28, 2011, 38 Posts, 733 Comments

Comment posted by Scott Smorra on September 4, 2012 at 9:06 PM

Thank you so much to everyone for all of the comments. I really appreciate it.

Registered on November 2, 2009, 161 Posts, 2143 Comments

Comment posted by Catherine Reilly on September 4, 2012 at 11:18 PM

Suggestions? Make something like this come out of my camera! I'm sorry, this is too good. This is so good that all the glory belongs to Him. To the photographer, I can only say, "How masterfully captured!"

Registered on August 16, 2006, 603 Posts, 9192 Comments

Comment posted by Basil Greber on September 5, 2012 at 6:52 PM

Pure awesomeness, from bottom to top.

I appreciate your detailed description of how you got that excellent result.

Registered on November 8, 2005, 219 Posts, 1340 Comments

Comment posted by Alex Noriega on September 12, 2012 at 7:25 PM

You already know how I feel about this via my G+ comments, but I'll echo them here: perfect balance of light in the blend. Very nice monochromatic handling of the galaxy. The way the sky color echoes the lupine is excellent. The choice to blend a twilight image with the Milky Way was a good one - who needs silhouettes and light painting when you can get a night feel at twilight? One of my favorite Milky Way images, for sure.

Registered on May 19, 2012, 80 Posts, 195 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on September 28, 2012 at 9:24 PM

Amazing! Very well done.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments