And we had some clear skies so I decided to head out last weekend to capture some milky way photos at a location I've had in mind for several years now. In fact, I even started hiking it one time a few years ago by myself by had a strong feeling to turn back and go home. It could have been the thought of mountain lions that kept me from going on or something else, I couldn't say for sure.
So this time I wrangled a friend to wake up at 2am on a Saturday to hike up in the snow to go take photos. Fortunately, I have some friends as crazy as me.
The location starts at my local ski resort and the idea was to get the milky way with the ski resort in frame. This is only possible early in the season due to the location of the milky way and light pollution from the city over the mountains. The trail was completely snowpacked but wasn't too icy so we didn't need snowshoes or spikes and we were able to make good time to a location to where we could see the ski resort, but we didn't hike all the way to the top of the peak, which was my ultimate goal. I think we would need to start about an hour or two earlier in order to get there in time to capture the milky way a bit lower on the horizon and to get a better view of the ski resort. Maybe next time.
Image from my second camera that I setup a timelapse
We stopped about 1/2 mile into the hike and snapped a couple photos to test the alignment. Turned out pretty good
I stopped on the drive up to get this photo. I was hoping my friend would show up in his car and provide some light trails but he was running a bit late
Ian photographing the milky way
We stayed until blue hour photographing the mountains and then headed back to the car. Sunrise was not exciting enough to stay and photograph, the downside to clear skies for stars.
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