Milky Way, Lake Lila – Stay at Home Edit

Milky Way over Lake Lila

Still searching, looking, hoping for answers in this life. Remembering a wonderful night from our last summer before moving out of the US – I was alone under the stars deep in the Adirondacks of NY, USA at Lake Lila, one of my favourite places. I took some time after photographing a few of my design client’s projects to spend time hiking / wandering in the mountains and forests.

This is a ‘stay at home’ re-edit, playing with the reflections a bit and altering the base Ps files that were stacked and stitched to make this image.

Canon EOS M6, EFM22, f2.8, 120s @ ISO 800, riding on a Vixen Polarie.

27 images (3 land, 12×2 for the sky). Tracked, stacked and stitched. Lr, AutoPano Giga and Ps.

Typically one visits Lake Lila with a canoe after a long drive down a ‘unimproved’ dirt road. I hiked into this spot after noon and setup, snacked, and watched the light change. I heard fireworks from far far away, dozed off, and eventually watched the Milky Way rising over the lake. I hiked out as the moon was rising, napped in the hatchback and was back in Vermont for breakfast at one of my favourite cafes before the family was out of bed.

Minimal edit in Lr, exported as TIFF, stacked in Starry Sky Stacker, TIFFs stitched in AutoPano Giga, imported to Ps, curves and adjustments, along with pasting in the static foreground images, then final adjustments in Lr.

End of Fall

Lovely late fall walk around Obersee, near Näfels, Switzerland this past weekend. Frosted ground, cold fingers, and some experimenting with the camera. The mountains had a fresh dusting of snow.

Spruce Mountain Fire Tower

3am alarm. Hiking by 4:30am. Startled a moose midway up the trail. Arrived at the end of blue hour, climbed the tower in the wind and was not disappointed. I was a bit unnerved swaying in howling wind, and while I took many many images I lost my composure and did not image as well as I intended.

A blue hour view from the cabin.

White Mountains and Mt. Washington on fire as the sun breaks the horizon.

The sky did not disappoint.

Mt. Washington and the Whites.

Looking east, Camel’s Hump, Worcester Range, far away is Mt. Mansfield, and the Winooski River Valley in the fog.

Sunrise Hike

Moody fog and clouds over the Green Mountains

2am alarm, hiking by 3:30 under a headlamp. Summit of Camel’s Hump for the end of blue hour, sky moody and cloudy, the valleys hidden below in the clouds. The sun made a very brief appearance before I started down the mountain.

Summit, Sun finally pierced the clouds

Rock, Moss, Trees, Water

A rainy hike and exploration of a creek just off the Long Trail. I bushwhacked along the edges exploring. I have to come back with a bit more water flowing but with dry ground.

Sunrise, Redux

This is (finally) 3 exposures, stitched and stacked…. lots of work, and minuscule glitches that I hand corrected. 39 camera positions, bracketed in 3 shots for 117 images. WordPress seems to be choking on my full size 20k pixel wide panoramas – so this is a reduced file size in order to not have to get on my hosting support chat again this week.

Learning, failing, inspired, imaging.

Summit of Camel’s Hump, Vermont. Moon over summit, Mount Washington ~78 miles distant near the center of the frame, fog in the river valleys, sun peeking over the horizon, Mount Mansfield, the tallest peak in VT to the left.

Summit, Sunrise

The moon over the summit, Mt. Washington and the White Mountains visible ~78 miles away, the sun rising, and Mt. Mansfield, the highest peak in VT on the left.

A long process to get this to manually stitch – I ended up reverting to Hugin, then doing some cleanup in Ps and final adjustment in Lr.

The computer ran for a couple of hours straight, fans blaring, blending this together.

Lots learned… and I will sit with this version for a time and let the process sink in.