I took a random trip up to Palomar Mountain on Friday - and I certainly wasn't disappointed in what I saw. While the fall colors here pale in comparison to what people enjoy on the East Coast this time of year, this year's autumn is quite nice for San Diego County. This is yet another reason why I love San Diego. We have it all: beaches, deserts, and mountains with four seasons. Shot with a Canon 6D and Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L lens. Palomar Mountain is a mountain ridge in the Peninsular Ranges in northern San Diego County. It is famous as the location of the Palomar Observatory and Hale Telescope, and known for the Palomar Mountain State Park.
After shooting the sunset, I stuck around a while longer to shoot some star trails with some autumn colors in the foreground. As I was wrapping up my sunset timelapse, I noticed that to the north the sky was nice and dark - even though the moon was somewhat to my back and doing a nice job of illuminating the trees and the road here. This was shot with a Canon 6D and Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L lens. I shot 49 exposures each at 40 sec f/5 ISO 800 and then stacked them in StarStaX to produce the image you see here. This is the equivalent of a 33 minute total exposure. Mount Laguna, California is in San Diego County and is only about a 75 minute drive from downtown San Diego. San Diego County is a big county and has very diverse climates: beaches, mountains, inland, and deserts. This is why I love living here - despite the high cost of living. I often tell people that, if given the choice, I'd rather live in a trailer in San Diego than a mansion elsewhere.
This is a single frame from a sunset through dusk time-lapse I shot up here. I'll likely be posting the time lapse sometime on Saturday. There's still some nice fall colors up here to enjoy before all the leaves on the non-evergreen trees are gone for winter. Shot with a Canon 6D and Canon EF 17-40mm F/4L lens at 1/160 sec f/5 ISO 640 24mm.
