Alex Noriega.'s photostream  

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Hennepin County Library in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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A stormy April afternoon in western Colorado, just east of Grand Junction. Mount Garfield is to the right just out of the frame.

Explored 4/27/2011 #28.

My Double Arch shot competes with this for my favorite of my work, but this one probably wins out.

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This is a manual blend of two exposures:

Foreground/arch exposure: 7 minutes, ISO 400, f/4.0, 6500K WB, focused on the arches
Sky/star exposure: 30 seconds, ISO 3200, f/2.8, 4250K WB, infinity focus

A few thoughts:
- These arches are HUGE, and the photo doesn't convey their size. It's awe-inspiring to stand below them - the foreground arch has a span of 148 feet, and a height of 104 feet.
- The most interesting thing about photos like this for me is realizing that when the light left those stars, these arches didn't exist. As the light made its journey to earth over millions of years, water slowly eroded the rock away to form the arches..
- Being alone in pitch blackness in wilderness you've never seen in daylight is scary. Especially when it's dead silent, and you hear even the SLIGHTEST sound (like your winter jacket scraping against the rocks), and you saw a sign warning of mountain lions in the parking lot..

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Another world? Nope, it's Vasquez Rocks, about an hour north of Los Angeles.

Formed by the action of the San Andreas Fault, these rocks have appeared in numerous films and television shows: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasquez_Rocks_in_popular_culture

This is a blend of one exposure for the foreground shortly after sunset, one for the sky color/gradient at twilight, and one for the stars about an hour after that.

Foreground: ISO 100, f/11, 30 seconds
Sky gradient: ISO 100, f/11, 15 seconds
Stars: ISO 1600, f/2.8, 30 seconds

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The San Gabriel Mountains covered in fog and moonlight. The warm light of Los Angeles is visible on the horizon.