Dark Skies in the Eastern Sierra

I made a trip to the Eastern Sierra in late October (Halloween to be exact) with the primary goal of capturing the Milky Way over the Mobius Arch and Mount Whitney. This is a popular spot for sunrise photos, as the rising sun creates a glow on the mountains and I have been there to see this at sunrise several times. I wanted to get a similar effect at moonrise: I wanted a glow on the mountains while having the sky dark enough to clearly see the stars. Few people do Milky Way photography with a nearly full moon, but I guess I am one of the few. I used an app called PhotoPills to find the best date where the stars would be behind the arch at moonrise, with the sky already fully dark after sunset. October 31 was that day.

I gave myself two night for this trip, the first staying in Lone Pine near the arch and the second in Lee Vining about 2 hours away. My hope was that I would get the shot I was after on the first night, allowing me to do something else on the second. If it didn’t work out, I would get another chance on the second night. The skies were cloudy while driving south along Hwy 395 from Yosemite, but the forecast called for clearing around sunset. I arrived in Lone Pine in the late afternoon, checked into my hotel, and then made may way into the Alabama Hills to set up. As it turned out, I had a very colorful sunset.

The sky was even more colorful looking to the north.

I set up my camera with the composition I wanted while it was still relatively light out. I used a 14mm f/2.4 lens to get a wide field of view and a lot of light. I also brought an LED light panel that I set up on another tripod off to the left. I was hoping not to need it – but I wanted to have some way to make sure that there was enough light on the arch for it to show clearly in the photos. As it turned out, I didn’t need it. Once it got dark I started taking photos. About half an hour before moonrise I noticed that Mount Whitney was starting to glow red in the photos – exactly what I was hoping for!

As the moon got closer to rising over the mountains to the east, the sky brightened and the glow on the mountains got duller. You can see this in the landscape image at the top of this post. Time to pack up and get some food!

I spent an unspectacular (and cold) sunrise at North Lake near Bishop and then explored the bristlecone pine forest before heading to Mono Lake for sunset and more stars. The sky was once again cloudy but clearing when I arrived in the parking lot about an hour before sunset. A lady was sitting in the passenger seat of the only other car in the lot, and she rolled down her window when I got out of the car. She wanted to know if the sunset was going to be good or if she should collect her husband and leave. I’m sure my reply didn’t help her, since I noted that at Mono Lake anything can happen.

As it turned out, the sunset was very nice. The lake was calm for some nice reflections and the clouds in the sky lit up with some great color. I started with some shots along the shoreline, trying to find compositions that included the best light in the sky.

As the sky got more spectacular, I moved to a spot with more water in the foreground to pick up more of the color.

Once again the skies cleared after sunset and I was able to capture some images of the Milky Way. This time I did add a little light to the foreground with my LED light panel. I used it at its lowest setting while also placing a handkerchief over it to reduce the light even further. I wanted to be able to see the tufa in the image without it being obvious that I was using a light. Another trick to keep the light from being too flat and eliminating texture was to place the light about 20 yards to my right rather than having it near my camera.

I spent the next morning at Tioga Lake. The forecast for sunrise didn’t look amazing so I picked a spot that was on my way home. As it turned out, I should know better than to trust forecasts! The lake was again calm enough for some nice reflections and the sky just kept getting better. The patchy snow on the mountains was nice too.

Overall I was really happy with how the trip worked out, and was glad to come home with some of my favorite images of the year.