July 18, 2018
The Return of the Milky Way
As the new moon approaches the opportunities to be able to see the Milky Way at dark locations lends itself again. This month weather constrained the choices of where to shoot; not the record setting heat, but cloudy skies. Since the kid is headed to Australia and New Zealand in late September and will be taking pics in dark sky locations, I insisted that she learn a bit about shooting in that environment. I had two locations selected for shooting: a familiar location(Red Rock) and new place(Arroyo Hondo, about 25 miles west of Santa Barbara). Both locations afforded dark skies and were about the same distance from BillinGlendale.com HQ. We ended up going(with Madame) to Red Rock due to a fire near Santa Barbara and my concern that the smoke might cause problems with shooting. We arrived early enough to still have some daylight to shoot some foreground shots and have some dinner. The skies where a bit cloudy in the beginning but cleared to allow for some pretty nice shots. With the fire near Santa Barbara(Goleta) out, I twice headed up to Arroyo Hondo later in the week to try shooting up there.
Read MoreAs the new moon approaches the opportunities to be able to see the Milky Way at dark locations lends itself again. This month weather constrained the choices of where to shoot; not the record setting heat, but cloudy skies. Since the kid is headed to Australia and New Zealand in late September and will be taking pics in dark sky locations, I insisted that she learn a bit about shooting in that environment. I had two locations selected for shooting: a familiar location(Red Rock) and new place(Arroyo Hondo, about 25 miles west of Santa Barbara). Both locations afforded dark skies and were about the same distance from BillinGlendale.com HQ. We ended up going(with Madame) to Red Rock due to a fire near Santa Barbara and my concern that the smoke might cause problems with shooting. We arrived early enough to still have some daylight to shoot some foreground shots and have some dinner. The skies where a bit cloudy in the beginning but cleared to allow for some pretty nice shots. With the fire near Santa Barbara(Goleta) out, I twice headed up to Arroyo Hondo later in the week to try shooting up there.
Portrait shot of the Galactic Center
Same shot as above but in portrait orientation. The one other problem that I discover with Arroyo Hondo is that truckers like the vista point as a place to pull of the road and rest a bit, so the foreground we suddenly get some un-welcomed illumination. I do like how this shot looks like the Milky Way is being illuminated by the offshore oil platform.
