Desert night pics

[2strok4fun]

Last weekend we spent a couple nights in the SoCal desert near Ridgecrest and got what I think are some interesting night shots. The moon was nearly full and I found it interesting how the color spectrum is just like daylight.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/2_stroke/6255963309/" title="DSC08763a by 2_stroke, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6111/6255963309_3b155d6a95.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="DSC08763a"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/2_stroke/6255962225/" title="DSC08762r by 2_stroke, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6034/6255962225_95dacf9080.jpg" width="334" height="500" alt="DSC08762r"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/2_stroke/6255966255/" title="DSC08860r by 2_stroke, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6108/6255966255_823057b441.jpg" width="359" height="500" alt="DSC08860r"></a>
No moon and lit by the campfire

 

[dirt bike dave]

Nice shots!

I like the 1st one best, but they are all very good.

 

[Dirtjunkie85]

These are great! I'm with DB Dave the first one is a rad picture!

 

[Phil]

Freakin' sweet!

 

[Rich Rohrich]

Outstanding. The clarity of the stars is really cool.

 

[Okiewan]

Amazing how many stars are out there ...

Nice shots! Makes me want to camp desert!

 

[mx547]

very cool.

 

[BSWIFT]

Amazing how many stars are out there ...

Nice shots! Makes me want to camp desert!

I think the stars are out there all of the time. O:

 

[2strok4fun]

Thanks guys,

it is a neat spot and reasonable for dark sky but still get light from Ridgecrest/china lake.

I got some new hardware, a new camera (sony a580) and a new sony 16-50 2.8 that is backordered but supposed to be really nice. All pics above were taken using my old a300 (terrible at hi iso) and an old minolta 50mm 1.7. The 50 gets nice sharp stars but I cant wait to shoot at a wider angle.

Next summer I hope to get nice Milky Way pics up in the So. Sierras where it is very good for dark sky.

 

[ws6transam]

How may seconds are your exposure times?

 

[2strok4fun]

How may seconds are your exposure times?

first pic 25 seconds @ f1.7 iso 100 50mm prime
second pic 20 seconds f1.7 iso 100 50mm prime
third pic 30 seconds f3.5 iso 100 18mm kit lens, this one is cheating a little on processing. I processed the same raw 2 times with different exposures, one for the rock and one for the stars, I think it ended up with about 4ev separation. The other 2 are basically just adjusted for levels.

btw, the greenish lights at the bottom of the 2nd pic are my kids running around with glow sticks and flashlights.

 

[2strok4fun]

A couple more from the same area.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/2_stroke/6416846565/" title="DSC00463 by 2_stroke, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7026/6416846565_bb6f62f1d7_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC00463"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/2_stroke/6416836109/" title="DSC00436 by 2_stroke, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7026/6416836109_b44b811a87_z.jpg" width="425" height="640" alt="DSC00436"></a>

 

[High Lord Gomer]

That's amazing. We never get to see that much in the sky in the Southeast...I guess there is too much man-made light drowning it out. Very cool to see that, though!

 

[thumbs]

Looks familiar, almost like I was there.

 

[2strok4fun]

Looks familiar, almost like I was there.

yup, ;)

New lens arrives tomorrow :) More reasons to go out and lay in the dirt in the desert...