Manhattan Beach fireworks

It’s Friday and the early 4^th of July celebrations start to kick off this weekend. Gonna try and catch a few local shows around me to photograph some fireworks. Here’s one from the annual (New Year) celebration on the Manhattan Beach Pier. Be safe and enjoy your festive weekend.

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Milky Way from Mauna Kea

Here’s one of my bucket list shots seeing the MW rise from the top of Mauna Kea at almost 14,000 ft making it the highest point in Hawaii. Big shout out to my cousin for showing me around and bringing me up here two nights in a row when they closed the road to the summit on the first due to poor weather conditions. We got lucky with some nice clouds at sunset that blew away as the Milky Way rose. We spent time acclimating at the VS but the rapid gain in elevation still took a toll on me. It was unreal to see the glow from the fissure and Hilo underneath the clouds which lined up perfectly with the core. The small flame under the clouds is the fissure pumping out gallons of lava and spouting hundreds of feet in the air. You can see the glow in the air and get glimpses of the fissure driving around the island…definitely surreal to see. On the bottom right of the picture you can see an Array which is being lit by the setting moon behind us. One of the darker skies I’ve had the chance to witness. This is the 24mm version. I’ll post a 14mm version down the road. This is a single shot stacked for noise reduction. Nikon D750, Nikkor 14-24, f/2.8, 8 sec, ISO-10,000

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Wizards Eye and Milky Way, Joshua Tree National Park

My time in Hawaii is winding down. Got a wedding today and a family dinner tomorrow. Will try to squeeze in a few more shots tomorrow am before we head back home. Been a fun but exhausting trip. Getting around to editing my MW shot from Mauna Kea but in the meantime here is a composite of the MW over Wizards Eye in JTNP. The MW does rise in this general direction but not like this as this faces out more East.

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Kapoho lava ocean entry, Hawaii

Here’s a quick edit from my flight over the lava activity going on around the Big Island right now. This is the fissure flowing down into the ocean around Kapoho Bay. You can kind of see the comparison with the land on the left and on the right and how the landscape is forever being changed. Sad how it is affecting the lives of so many people and crazy how there is so much beauty in destruction. My 3 days in Hilo were packed with seeing family and getting out for pics of the lava and the MW above the clouds on Mauna Kea. We are now in Waikiki for a week. Most of the complex edits will have to wait until I get home but I may throw up a few singles if I can. Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-120, f/8, 1/3200 sec, ISO-400

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Car trails on PCH at sunset

Had to make a stop out at this viewpoint when I went camping at Leo Carrillo a few weeks ago since I was so close. Weren’t too many clouds by sunset but the colors hung around well after sunset for me to snag this long exposure of the cars winding down PCH. Happy weekend everyone.

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Trona Pinnacles moonlit tufa

Here’s a single tufa shot under a crescent moon. The clouds looked like they were parting and I was able to get a glimpse of a good amount of stars along with the awesome patterns in the clouds. Trona still has a fair bit of light pollution as you can see on the left side of this shot. After I shot a few moonlit photo’s the clouds rolled in pretty thick and I called it a night. Nikon D750, Nikkor 14-24, f/2.8, 15 sec, ISO-1600.

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Malibu Long Exposure car trails under the Milky Way

Chasing curves in Malibu. Been eyeing this one for a while so finally got around to doing it. This curve is wide with my 14mm barely fitting the entire curve in. I set up towards the tail end of twilight and just hoped I could catch a clean cartrail without too much flare and just my luck a truck with real low dim lights made its way around the bend giving me a clean trail with no flare. Shot the MW separately and combined the two. This one faces out SE so you get a bit of city light pollution on the left side. Not the darkest sky but still a shot I’ve wanted to snag. 

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