Here is something we can learn from landscape photographer Weasel_Loader_Photo about the techniques and story behind this awarded photo.
Location: I shot this photo at Trona Pinnacles which is just outside of the small town of Trona, California.
Time: This photo was taken very early in the morning and ironically right at the moment of a full lunar eclipse. I had made the trip out to this beautiful place to take photos of the actual lunar eclipse, but saw the awesome milky way off to my left when the moon was fully covered and swung the camera around to shoot it.
Lighting: Just a small LED flashlight was used to shine some light on the foreground rocks to illuminate them ever-so-slightly.
Equipment:This was shot using a Nikon D810, Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G lens. Both were mounted on an Induro tripod and head.
Editing: I started off in Lightroom with minor adjustments using white balance, highlights, and shadows. I then brought the image into Adobe PS and used a few quick techniques to bring out the Milky Way and give it better contrast. Final adjustments were then made again in Lightroom with quick brushes to bring out the rocks a little more and then my usual noise reduction and small crop adjustments.
Inspiration: No inspiration, just wasn't having luck getting any good or interesting shots of the lunar eclipse, and figured I might as well take the time to get a nice shot of the milky way while the moon is hiding.
Advice: My advice is to find the darkest skies you can. Thats not a problem in the Western U.S. and I happen to live at the edge of light pollution just outside of Los Angeles that allows me to take advantage of some great locations. I'm a huge fan of Lonelyspeck.com where I learned almost all my Astrophotography techniques from. There are also tons of processing how-to videos on Youtube for Astrophotography that helped me out as well.
In my camera bag: My equipment is constantly changing as I was primarily and landscape shooter up until a few months ago with the Nikon D810 and 14-24mm f/2.8 lens as my primary combo. I have since become more of an event shooter and now own a Nikon D4 and 300mm f/2.8 as my primary shooter and a second body with a Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 VC lens.
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