Milky Way @ McWay Falls, Big Sur State Park
Location: McWay Falls, Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, Big Sur, planet Earth
Created: 08/13/15 8:37:40 pm & 9:40:35 pm
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark iii
Lens: EF16-35mm f/4L IS USM
Aperture Sky: f/4.0; @16mm; 20 sec.; ISO 8000
Aperture Land: f/4.5; @16mm; 13 sec.; ISO 500
A friend and I had been searching for a pristine spot to capture the Milky Way, and finally found it. We then used a Photographer's Ephemeris, a map-centric calculator that helps find when and where stellar features align at any moment, anywhere on Earth. We headed to the Big Sur Coastline, hoping for no fog or clouds. Upon arriving, we explored all morning, then back to shore by nightfall. After consuming for six hours photographing the stars, we returned to the truck for sleep and shelter, parked in the locked and gated parking lot posted as "absolutely no-overnight parking." The Milky Way, shot as an extended exposure photo, is intriguing. The night sky exhibits a banded whitish halo, with our galaxy centered well within the Milky Way. What we are seeing is a thick disc of millions of stars, clouds of gas, and dust. Light is obscured by all but the closest regions of the galaxy from view. We can only see a mere 1,000 to 2,000 light-years in any direction, although the Milky Way is over 100,000 light-years across. I would like to remind you that the colors of the stars are not all white, as perceived. In fact, from cool to hot, the colors are red, orange, yellow, white, green, and blue. It is said that Julia Pfeiffer once lived here, and the view from our spot was the same as the one from her tiny bedroom window, her walls painted in black, which she built in 1915. The house burned down many years later, but I felt a connection to the past as we gazed at the same view she once admired. We seemed utterly isolated in the darkness. When I returned home and reviewed the long exposures, I realized we had company. If you peer on the fringe of the cliff in the woods near the falls, there's a faint magical glow from a hidden camper's bonfire. It's a subtle metaphor that reminds us that we all may share common moments, whether we know it or not.
