STARS AND ARCH - 4 August 2014

Mobious Arch and Mt Lone Pine - Alabama Hill, California

Link to Full sized image: http://www.tom-hill.biz/Galleries/Scenics/California/i-qh36xJj/A
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Here's another image from my short trip this last weekend to the Eastern Sierra's. You can see Mt Lone Pine through the arch. The moon was just setting behind Mt Whitney when I shot this. As low as the moon was, it was plenty bright enough to see through the shadows even on the dark side of this arch. Sure, it was dark out there but I could almost get around without any extra aides. As it was, any brighter I don't think I would've been able to capture the Milky Way like it's presented here. In other words, I was lucky to pick this weekend because the combination of an appropriately dim moon with an appropriately bright moon allowed this capture.

This image was a single capture--i.e. shot with a single image file. Through post processing, I was able to separate the foreground rocks from the background sky to allow very careful adjustments. Since they were separated, I was able to increase the tonal characteristics without adversely affecting the other area. Okay, this is a complicated concept to describe here without having to show you precisely what I did. Just know the process I worked through pretty much was developed to overcome the limitations of my equipment to allow the "pre-visualized" scene I had to materialize here.

Cheers

Tom

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