Anza Borrego Silhouette Starscapes

So J and I came back yesterday from a 3-day camping trip to Anza Borrego Desert State Park. We did a bit of hiking and driving around to explore different places since the first time we came last year it was way too hot to do anything.

I'm still in the process of editing everything and I'll post the day to day once I finish. I started editing my astrophotography shots as I was excited to see how they came out.

The Milky Way is best seen pre-dawn in March/April so I knew I was in for a short night. The first night I woke up around 3:30am but the sky was hazy and cloudy so I decided not to go out. The second night however was crystal clear from the strong wind that pretty much blew everything away.

I was out in Borrego Springs around 4am shooting the Milky Way against the man made sculptures made by Ricardo Breceda. These things are scattered all across the park, some right off the road and some further in on dirt roads.

My first instinct was to get a silhouette of the sculptures. I was able to get to three of them before the sun started coming up. The first two are pretty close together and right off the road.





There was another close one of the bighorn sheep but the road they were on was closed and I didn't want to hike to them. So instead I drove south to the dinosaur sculptures that are off a dirt road. Was a bit hard to navigate there in the dark, but managed to find my way ok.



I framed this one to look like the dinosaur was eating the Milky Way.

I also did a round with some light painting with my headlamp, which was a bit of hit or miss as I haven't done too much light painting. I'll probably edit those next so I'll post them when I do.

Brandon Yoshizawa

B.A.Y | photography
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