Lost among the cosmos at Lost Lake
A nearly perfectly still night produced wonderful reflections on the surface of Lost Lake in Oregon, showing both the majesty of Mt. Hood but also the mind blow...
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A nearly perfectly still night produced wonderful reflections on the surface of Lost Lake in Oregon, showing both the majesty of Mt. Hood but also the mind blowing detail of the Milky Way not once, but twice across the expanse of the Pacific Northwest night.
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Mar, 2017Views
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Awards
People's Choice in Galactic Skies Photo Challenge
Contest Finalist in Mountains And The Night Photo Contest
Winner in The Milky Way Photo Challenge
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Superb Composition
Magnificent Capture
Top Choice
Superior Skill
All Star
Outstanding Creativity
Virtuoso
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Behind The Lens
Location
This is the view of Mt. Hood from Lost Lake in northern Oregon. The drive up to the lake is winding and long, but the view makes it all worth it, even when its not under the star filled skies like this.Time
We arrived at Lost Lake after sunset, having shot the majority of the evening on the south side of Mt. Hood at Trillium Lake, then decided to make the drive up to Lost Lake as blue hour set in and we realized we had clear skies. EXIF information says 12:48am, but this was likely still set to CST, so that would be 10:50pm Pacific Time, which makes sense as it's one of the first frames from this series.Lighting
My group had planned our trip to coincide with nearly new moon in hopes of good tides at the coast and dark skies for astrophotography. All of the light captured by the camera is entirely star light. The vividness of the Milky Way in this frame makes me suspect it was before any moonlight was in the sky at all.Equipment
This image was shot on my Canon 6D paired with the Canon EF 28mm f/1.8, setup on my Induro CLT304L carbon fiber tripod. The 28mm 1.8 is a great lens for many things, but in this application the coma and astigmatism is still quite strong at f/2 aperture. Seeing this is what prompted me to invest in a Rokinon/Samyang 24mm f/1.4 not long after. I do find the extra 4mm of focal length does make some difference in my images however between the two lenses and have considered upgrading my body to a higher MP setup so that I can crop a tad bit to get closer to this 28mm framing once again.Inspiration
The opportunity to shoot at Lost Lake under perfectly clear and dark skies is rare enough, but to have a night that was nearly perfectly calm as well was too good to pass up. As mentioned, we had been shooting further south at Trillium Lake until after sunset, but feeling the opportunity was too good to pass up, even after a full day of shooting at Silver Falls State Park and Trillium, the adventure began fresh again.Editing
Shooting the night sky requires quite a bit in terms of Post Processing to bring out the most of the resulting image. All of my images start in Lightroom for a RAW edit baseline before moving into Photoshop for the 'creative' part of the editing process. Most of the editing on this image was done to bring out the color and contrast in the Milky Way, as well as in the reflection down below. The reflection is entirely as-shot, no mirroring done in post.In my camera bag
One of my two Canon 6D bodies and a variety of lenses ranging from the new Rokinon SP 14mm 2.4 to the awesomely sharp 70-200 F4L IS are standard issue lenses in the kit. The 16-35 F4L is almost always in the go-to set. Breakthrough X4 ND filters (77mm screw-on) make up the bulk of my ND set which allows me to shoot at longer exposure times. A 3, 6 and 10 stop model are all part of my normal set for landscape photography.Feedback
Astrophotography takes a bit of luck, a bit of timing, and just a little gear to really step up from 'oh look a Milky Way' to 'Oh wow, now that's inspiring me to stay up all night in the middle of no where.' Dark skies away from any sort of city or town to eliminate light pollution, a still night so that both the water and your tripod is still, and a night with little or no moonlight to wash out the details of the night sky. A fast lens (f/2.8 wide open or better) and a lens that's moderately wide (24mm or wider) make for the best choices.
