Hawkins Photo Alchemy

Photography by Joseph B Hawkins, Jr.

"Alchemy" - A Power or Process of Transforming Something Common Into Something Special

Sierra Night Sky

by | Jun 1, 2019 | Blog

Sierra Night Sky

Star Photography has become a natural extension of landscape photography. A few years ago I wanted to expand my skill in the area of night and start photography but had several failed attempts, due to weather and fires.  I conintued to study instructional videos and kept learing about the process and techniques. In Sepetember 2018 I embarked on a four night, five day backpacking trip into the John Muir Wilderness of the Sierra Nevada Mountains with a goal of capturing the milky way in various locations.  Considerable planning involved choosing the dates of the trip which coincided with a dark sky early in the night and the moon rise later in the night to illuminate the foreground. This coupled with careful positioning of my camera and tripod created the disired composition. The result was very satisfying as I was able to capture images on three of the four nights. Included here are images of my tent with the star trails around the North Star at Martha Lake, the Milky Way over Mt Hutton and Hell for Sure Lake, and the Milky Way over Disappointment Lake.

Click on any image for a larger view.

Check out previous posts:

Tuolumne River – White Wolf to Tuolumne Meadows

Tuolumne River – White Wolf to Tuolumne Meadows

OLD PHOTOS DISCOVERED Sitting home unable to be out and about this weekend I spent some time going through my photo library and rediscovered images from a backpacking trip in 2003 up the Tuolumne River from White Wolf to Tuolumne Meadows. It was four day three night...

Wishon Reservoir

Wishon Reservoir

Wishon Reservoir is part of a marvel of engineering in the Sierra Nevada mountains harnessing the power of melting snow to produce electricity, irrigate crops, and supply fresh water to the residents of central California.