Miscellaneous

The lift is being fixed for the next day. during that time we regret that you will be unbearable.

--Sign in a hotel lobby in Bucharest. Somewhat clouded out Milky Way above an old elevator car at the Motor Transport Museum. The car dates back to the 1800's and was once in a local department store. Here are some more unintentionally funny translations from foreign languages into English: "Special cocktails: For the ladies with nuts." -- Sign in a bar in Tokyo. "Our wines leave you nothing to hope for." -- On the menu at a Swiss restaurant. "Because of the impropriety of entertaining guests of the opposite sex in the bedroom, it is suggested that the lobby be used for this purpose." -- Sign in the lobby of a hotel in Zurich.

Vandenberg Air Force Base NROL-42 Atlas 5 Rocket Flies Through the Milky Way

Seen from the southern portion of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. This is a single frame from a Milky Way time lapse I shout tonight.

Milky Way Arch Over the Trona Pinnacles

This panorama was stitched together from 17 vertical frames shot with my Canon 6D and Sigma 15mm EX DG at 25 sec f/2.8 ISO 3200. The Trona Pinnacles are an unusual geological feature in the California Desert National Conservation Area. The unusual landscape consists of more than 500 tufa spires (porous rock formed as a deposit when springs interact with other bodies of water), some as high as 140 feet (43 m), rising from the bed of the Searles Lake (dry) basin. The pinnacles vary in size and shape from short and squat to tall and thin, and are composed primarily of calcium carbonate (tufa). They now sit isolated and slowly crumbling away near the south end of the valley, surrounded by many square miles of flat, dried mud and with stark mountain ranges at either side. The Pinnacles are recognizable in more than a dozen hit movies. Over thirty film projects a year are shot among the tufa pinnacles, including backdrops for car commercials and sci-fi movies and television series such as Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Disney's Dinosaur, The Gate II, Lost in Space, and Planet of the Apes.

Partly Cloudy Milky Way Panorama at the Trona Pinnacles

Lately I've come to the conclusion that a few clouds can actually make a Milky Way photo more dramatic - rather than detracting from it. It was a bit more cloudy this night than it was when I shot the other panorama from here that I recently posted. The really bright area of light pollution to the left is from the Searles Valley Minerals soda ash processing plant. Judging from the number of abandoned homes and business in town, the plant likely employs far fewer people these days than it once did. This panorama was stitched together from 23 vertical frames shot with my Canon 6D and Sigma 15mm EX DG at 25 sec f/2.8 ISO 3200. The Trona Pinnacles are an unusual geological feature in the California Desert National Conservation Area. The unusual landscape consists of more than 500 tufa spires (porous rock formed as a deposit when springs interact with other bodies of water), some as high as 140 feet (43 m), rising from the bed of the Searles Lake (dry) basin. The pinnacles vary in size and shape from short and squat to tall and thin, and are composed primarily of calcium carbonate (tufa). They now sit isolated and slowly crumbling away near the south end of the valley, surrounded by many square miles of flat, dried mud and with stark mountain ranges at either side. The Pinnacles are recognizable in more than a dozen hit movies. Over thirty film projects a year are shot among the tufa pinnacles, including backdrops for car commercials and sci-fi movies and television series such as Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Disney's Dinosaur, The Gate II, Lost in Space, and Planet of the Apes.

Milky Way Arch Over a Couple of Ancient Bristlecone Pine Trees

This was my second visit to the Ancient Bristlecones - the first visit was during the daytime. To produce this panoramic image, I shot and stitched together 13 vertical frames at 25 sec f/2.8 ISO 3200 with my Canon 6D and Sigma 15mm EX DG. I was camping at the Trona Pinnacles when another photographer asked if I'd like to meet up and go shooting over here. I'm glad I did - even though it was about four hours away from where I was at. I think the high altitude (10,000 feet / 3048 meters) had an effect on me. I kept losing my sense of balance and stumbled around much of the night (and no, I had not been drinking). Plus my nose bled a few times for no other apparent reason (this happens when I fly, too). Unsurprisingly, at this altitude, it gets quite chilly at night - even in the middle of July. Fortunately there wasn't much wind. We also ran into some other photographers - that happened to be from the San Diego area - and were shooting the Milky Way for the first time. I gave them lots of pointers. The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest is a protected area high in the White Mountains in Inyo County in eastern California. The Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva) trees grow between 9,800 and 11,000 feet (3,000–3,400 m) above sea level, in xeric alpine conditions, protected within the Inyo National Forest. Foxtail Pine (Pinus balfouriana) also grow in the forest. The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest is generally open from mid-May through the end of November, weather permitting.

Trona Pinnacles Sunset Panorama

I shot this at the Trona Pinnacles towards the end of the peak of the time period where the sky was nice and colorful - prior to this panorama, I was shooting a sunset time lapse. This panorama was stitched together from 18 vertical frames shot with my Canon 6D and Tokina AT-X 17-35mm at 1/5 sec f/5.6 ISO 100 at 30mm. The Trona Pinnacles are an unusual geological feature in the California Desert National Conservation Area. The unusual landscape consists of more than 500 tufa spires (porous rock formed as a deposit when springs interact with other bodies of water), some as high as 140 feet (43 m), rising from the bed of the Searles Lake (dry) basin. The pinnacles vary in size and shape from short and squat to tall and thin, and are composed primarily of calcium carbonate (tufa). They now sit isolated and slowly crumbling away near the south end of the valley, surrounded by many square miles of flat, dried mud and with stark mountain ranges at either side. The Pinnacles are recognizable in more than a dozen hit movies. Over thirty film projects a year are shot among the tufa pinnacles, including backdrops for car commercials and sci-fi movies and television series such as Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Disney's Dinosaur, The Gate II, Lost in Space, and Planet of the Apes.

Trona Pinnacles Sunset: Fire In the Sky

(But no water for there to be smoke on). I shot this at the Trona Pinnacles the night before (July 18, 2017) the sunset time-lapse and panorama I recently posted. This panorama was stitched together from 15 vertical frames shot with my Canon 6D and Tokina AT-X 17-35mm at 1/20 sec f/8 ISO 100 at 35mm. The Trona Pinnacles are an unusual geological feature in the California Desert National Conservation Area. The unusual landscape consists of more than 500 tufa spires (porous rock formed as a deposit when springs interact with other bodies of water), some as high as 140 feet (43 m), rising from the bed of the Searles Lake (dry) basin. The pinnacles vary in size and shape from short and squat to tall and thin, and are composed primarily of calcium carbonate (tufa). They now sit isolated and slowly crumbling away near the south end of the valley, surrounded by many square miles of flat, dried mud and with stark mountain ranges at either side. The Pinnacles are recognizable in more than a dozen hit movies. Over thirty film projects a year are shot among the tufa pinnacles, including backdrops for car commercials and sci-fi movies and television series such as Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Disney's Dinosaur, The Gate II, Lost in Space, and Planet of the Apes.

Elliott's House From the Movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

The house - located in Tujunga, California - looks mostly the same except for a new paint job and more mature landscaping.

Nightmare Rock in Lone Pine, California