Earlier this week I met up with a fellow photographer in the Malibu area to show him around Leo Carrillo and El Matador beach. I have seen this guard tower at Leo Carrillo quite a few times but had bypassed it for other shots in the area. Seeing how excited he was to shoot this spot I thought to get a little creative with my shot and after shooting for the milky way I decided to step into the frame to add to the foreground. The light I used was actually a small little camping lantern that is dimmable and has a blue base that when tilted a certain way towards the camera emits that hue. I don’t usually post selfie photos, electing mostly for the natural (and I guess supernatural of the milky way) in most of my shots. I am happy with how this turned out. :)
I took 5 tracked shots of the milky way with my iOptron Skytracker Pro for 120 seconds each at f/2.8 and a very low ISO of 800. I stacked these images in Starry Landscape Stacker and blended them back into my foreground. For the foreground I did exactly as stated above. I took 5 foreground shots at f/2.8, ISO 1250 for 30 seconds each. This was enough to get some foreground detail into the shot, and by stacking them I was able to reduce the noise. After I took 3 more shots with me in the frame, same settings but a lower ISO of 640. Blended all those suckers together and ended up with this shot.
⌁ Location: Malibu, CA
⌁ Date: June 27th, 2017
⌁ Camera: 
⌁ Lens:
⌁ Filter: 
⌁ 120 Seconds (x5)
⌁ f/2.8
⌁ 35mm
⌁ ISO 800
⌁ WB Auto
⌁ 5 tracked images for milky way, 8 long exposure photo for foreground
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