The Milky Way galaxy over some pine trees in Mount Laguna, California on Saturday June 22, 2019 This image is a noise-reduction stack of 5 frames each shot at 15 sec f/2.8 ISO 4000 with a Canon 6D and a Sigma 15mm EX DG lens. This is my first time experimented with aligning and masking multiple frames to reduce noise reduction. Due to the complex foreground - the intricate - details of the pine tree branches - lining up and masking the layers was a lot more challenging. This image isn't as sharp as I had hoped for, but I hope to improve upon this technique over time. Weather conditions were perfect - no wind, clear skies, and pleasant temperatures. Mount Laguna is a small census-designated place (CDP) in San Diego County, California. It is approximately 6000 ft above sea level in a forest of Jeffrey pine, east of San Diego in the Laguna Mountains on the eastern edge of the Cleveland National Forest (named after former president Grover Cleveland). The hamlet sits at the high point of a scenic drive on Sunrise Highway from Interstate 8 to Highway 79. Mount Laguna consists of a small general store, rustic lodge and cabins, local restaurant, rural post office, and campgrounds adjacent to the Pacific Crest Trail. The Laguna Mountain Recreation Area surrounds the village, and the visitor's center for the pine-covered area is located here. The mountain backcountry of San Diego County is high enough to receive snowfall in winter months, and the Mount Laguna region offers locally-unique winter recreation in the form of snow play, sledding, and cross country skiing for several days after larger storms.
The Milky Way galaxy forms an arch over a nice forest of pine trees up in Mount Laguna, California. I produced this panorama from 11 frames each shot at 15 sec f/2.8 ISO 4000 with a Canon 6D and my trusty Sigma 15mm EX DG lens. I softly illuminated the fallen tree using the screen on my phone. These frames were taken about 40 minutes before moonrise on Saturday June 22, 2019. As with the photo from here I posted the other day, I went with Kamala Venkatesh. Weather conditions were perfect - no wind, clear skies, and pleasant temperatures. Mount Laguna is a small census-designated place (CDP) in San Diego County, California. It is approximately 6000 ft above sea level in a forest of Jeffrey pine, east of San Diego in the Laguna Mountains on the eastern edge of the Cleveland National Forest (named after former president Grover Cleveland). The hamlet sits at the high point of a scenic drive on Sunrise Highway from Interstate 8 to Highway 79. Mount Laguna consists of a small general store, rustic lodge and cabins, local restaurant, rural post office, and campgrounds adjacent to the Pacific Crest Trail. The Laguna Mountain Recreation Area surrounds the village, and the visitor's center for the pine-covered area is located here. The mountain backcountry of San Diego County is high enough to receive snowfall in winter months, and the Mount Laguna region offers locally-unique winter recreation in the form of snow play, sledding, and cross country skiing for several days after larger storms.
Last night I went up to Mount Laguna to shoot the Milky Way. This is my first post-worthy Milky Way shot up here this season. While I've been to the desert to shoot the galaxy core several times, I haven't come up here to shoot it until last night. Well, I did try to shoot in the night before, but it was too windy and the location I chose - an abandoned barn - didn't work out as planned. So I headed up the mountain again last night and managed to pull off several successful shot. I'll be sharing the rest of them over the next few days. Instead of my usual Sigma 15mm EX DG fisheye, I decided to use my "nifty fifty" Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens. I shot a total of 15 exposures: 5 columns by 3 rows and stitched the images together in Lightroom. Each exposure was shot with a Canon 6D at 8 sec f/2.2 ISO 4000. I generally prefer to shoot these kinds of shots at ISO 3200, but the cooler temperature made me feel comfortable using ISO 4000 and not having to worry about heat-related noise. I didn't have to do a longer exposure for the foreground as the rising moon (out of frame and just barely below the horizon) took care of the foreground illumination naturally. I really like the look of the pine trees up here. I believe these are known as Jeffrey Pines (Pinus jeffreyi). They're named after John Jeffrey, a 19th century Scots botanist who traveled in Oregon and California and who found the tree in the Shasta Valley of California. These trees are related to ponderosa pines, but the barbs of the pinecones are pointed inward. Ponderosa pine cones have outward-facing barbs. The scent of Pinus jeffreyi is variously described as reminiscent of vanilla, lemon, pineapple, violets, apple, and, quite commonly, butterscotch; This scent may be sampled by breaking off a shoot or some needles, or by simply smelling the resin's scent in between the plates of the bark.
