Brendon and Aaron finally get a chance to get back out there with their cameras and celebrate 3-years of doing Milky Way Photography on a 4-Night Trip that of course did not entirely go to plan.
Brilliant Portfolio Leading Milky Way at Island in the Sky in Canyonlands National Park – Episode 130
We began this trip with a cancellation, as clouds ruined our chances of getting a Milky Way out at Royce Bair Milky Way Butte, we are forced to make a 5-hour detour drive to Richfield, Utah for a print that was as tall as Aaron! This print was a gift to Canyon Country Lodge out in Escalante, and it was huge! Barely fit in the pickup we rented!
Knowing time is precious, we take off from Escalante that same night and begin the trek to Moab with only one stop off at an amazing Martian-like landscape. The area is one we have been many times before, but we did NOT know about this spot to capture from. We have passed the road that leads to it several times, and missed out on many opportunities for a great image! Having used our skills in Google Earth scouting and matching terrain from an image up with the landscape, we are familiar with it, and we discovered its location and worked to get our first image out there. The drive through the night was going to be worth it! We hoped.
After sharing a nightmare sleeping condition story, we spend the rest of the podcast on being in Moab and our amazing morning at Island in the sky.
What Went Well…
Classic what went well and what could have been better, we break down the successes and failures are Island in the Sky and Aaron shares that he may have just captured his second or first best image of all time! As far as Milky Way Photography goes, this image might be his best depending on who you ask. Aaron has his favorite, but this new shot is easily his second.
It’s amazing how we can capture an awesome portfolio image and not even recognize it until you post-process it!
We also go into the merits of extremely long exposures to bring in your landscape foreground. When you hear advice from Royce Bair and Wayne Pinkston, who both have amazing bodies of work in Milky Way Photography, you want to copy them any way you can to get your great images. But to this point, I was not doing long exposures for the foreground despite seeing it in their photography and hearing it here on the podcast. But in this circumstance – Island in the Sky – an excellent long exposure bringing out all the foreground detail was a benefit instead of a way to light up distractions in your composition.
Long exposed foregrounds are NOT something you should do in every Milky Way Image. So we talk about our recommendations on when it IS going to work for you.
Watch on YouTube
See the Photog Adventure behind the scenes story of the images we captured that morning here on our YouTube channel:
Aaron’s Processing Tutorial
Watch the Milky Way Wednesday where Aaron breaks down even more details from that trip and shows how he processed the sky panorama and ground panorama stitching them together with Photoshop:
Photog Adventures Live Event Alert
Join our Live Event Alert Squad email list and never miss another live event again. Sign up here: Photog Adventures Live Event Alert
Our New Milky Way Photographers Website
Our MilkyWayPhotographers.com website is now live! We have lots of great resources there for Milky Way Photographers – news, forums, and tutorials. If you are even slightly interested in Milky Way photography, you owe it to yourself to check it out!
Eric Benedetti’s Star Tracker Course
You can find Eric Benedetti’s Star Tracker course here: http://bit.ly/2NyykAB
Upcoming Milky Way Workshops
Milky Way Workshops in 2019
Goblin Valley Workshops
Escalante Workshops
Bandon, OR / Crater Lake Workshops
Items Discussed in this Episode –
The following are Amazon Affiliate links. Clicking on and buying these items helps us produce this show.
Here’s some of the gear Aaron and Brendon use:
Camera:
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Body – https://amzn.to/2FawCmm
Canon 5D Mk III: https://amzn.to/2uDvTns
Wide-Angle Lens:
Canon EF 16–35mm f/2.8L III USM – https://amzn.to/2EZxSaW
Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 VC –https://amzn.to/2NRdsUZ
Related Episodes
You can listen to…
PODCAST 126: Kim Grant | Scottish Landscape Photog Talks Using Tripods Less, Favorite Spots & Aurora
PODCAST 124: Drew’s Amazing Snowy Weekend at Bryce Canyon & Photographing Wild Foxes!
Give us a Review
Leave us a review at iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite source for podcasts. It helps our podcast rankings and it helps others find our show.
Photog Adventures Gear and Swag
Looking for Photog Adventures t-shirts, 3 different sizes of stickers, or a duvet cover for your next adventure? Then check out our Photog Adventures Redbubble Page Click on the words “AVAILABLE PRODUCTS 55” to see all of the RedBubble Options.
Thanks to our Patrons
Thanks for listening and supporting Photog Adventures! Become a Founder of Photog Adventures – join us at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/photogadventures
Listen on Soundcloud
Missed one of our older shows? Here’s they are: