Mesmerized

On this clear and chilly night at Mount Rainier National Park a nearly full moon shown overhead, bright enough that a headlamp would only be superfluous as I made my way down the winding trails. With absolute stillness in the air and not another person for miles, there was a certain enchantment to the landscape.

The moon drifted across the sky and ultimately disappeared behind Mount Tahoma. The ambient light quickly waned, and the sky succumbed to the darkness as it climatically made its way from east to west, exposing the spine of the Milky Way with billions upon billions of points of light glittering the night sky. The shadow of the mountain remained visible in the distance with the faint glow of climbers’ headlamps as they made their early-morning ascent of Rainier’s North face.

No photograph could adequately capture the immensity of the scene that lay before me.


This is one that must be viewed large.

Prints available here: www.danseidmanphoto.com
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Canon EOS 5D Mark II & Canon 17-40mm f/4L
Focal length: 17mm
Shutter: 20 seconds
Aperture: f/4
ISO 5000
*Four exposures were stacked in post-processing to reduce noise.