Star Field and Moonset Over Monterey Bay

Posted by Don Smith (California, United States) on 31 July 2009 in Landscape & Rural.

Night photography is rapidly becoming a passion of mine thanks to the amazing capabilities of digital sensors. This image was captured Saturday night high atop Fremont Peak (elevation 3200 feet) overlooking the fog-shrouded Monterey Bay. I was with two other photographers, Mike Hall and Jackie Young, when I made this capture around 11:00 p.m. We had been trying to capture star trails but were somewhat unsuccessful because of the light pollution from the surrounding cities. An amazing reddish glow hovered along the horizon all the way until 10 p.m. (an hour and forty minutes past posted sunset).

This was one of the last frames I made on this evening. Basically I "eyeballed" my LCD, and checked my histogram to make sure I was not clipping any of the three channels, and I liked the result. I used my 16-35mmL lens at f/2.8 with an ISO of 400; noise was very minimal.

The moon was actually a beautiful crescent but registered as a white orb due to the earth's rotation (relative to my position, the moon moved 1/4 degree during the exposure). The one-minute exposure also allowed for some slight blurring with some of the brighter stars.

Just below the horizon is a blanket of fog which had moved in off the Pacific Ocean. The highlights atop portions of the fog are actually small communities (underneath the fog). The brightest glow on the far bottom right of the frame is San Jose. The moon itself is setting just above Monterey.

We will be visiting this area during my next month's
Big Sur Summer Workshop . I still have some openings. If you are interested, please send me an e-mail and I will get you more information.

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www.donsmithphotography.com

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