While camping with my wife and baby this week, I was able to sneak away and capture one of the most breathtaking skies I have ever seen with my own eyes. This was a very easy spot to get to, as it is a tourist stop that is overlooking Liberty Bell in the Washington Pass. The mountain was HUGE and my 11mm lens really did crush the awesomeness of this view… but I’ll get to that in a moment… before I tell you about the image, I will express how FREAKY it is to see climbers trekking up this mountain in the middle of the night… Headlamps flashing away, like little fireflies scattering up the mountain side… The balls on those people… I am amazed they can walk, let alone climb…
Now… why do you not see the headlamps in the image? That’s because I used the land from the sunset shot captured with my Canon 11-24 (f/4). The stars were shot later with my Rokinon 14mm(f/2.8) (10 exposures stacked to reduce noise). The Rokinon exposures definitely showed the mountain climber’s headlamps but I was really disappointed with how less sharp the land looked with this lens compared to my 11mm… So all the land you see was captured with the Canon and blended with the stars after…
I don’t know why I was surprised in the difference in quality, the cost difference between these lenses is HUGE… But I am obsessed with sharpness and the Rokinon is pretty weak at everything except letting in more light. If I shoot more astro I will be investing in something better, but this is literally my second Milky Way Shoot. If you know of a killer astro lens let me know – I am excited about the Sigma ART 14mm 1.8 that comes out this month but it’s costly ;-).
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