Shunkan.org - Blog

When I went to Anza-Borrego in March to take pictures of the blooming desert flowers, I also packed my heavy tripod and took some pictures of the rusty metal sculptures at Galleta Meadows. That was the very first time I tried to take pictures of a starry night. I later learned that the best time to see the many stars of the milky way starts a little bit later than March, and I ended up going again in September. The picture above is from September.

That's one of the shots I've taken in March, it's not bad either, but I was hoping for more stars.

As you can see, there are way more stars visible in the pictures I took in September.

Not too many stars in this March shot, but the clouds make for a pretty epic sky.

I've also included some pictures I took during the day. This sculpture depicts the Wind God Bird maybe 20 or 30 minutes before sunset.

This one is taken @ ISO 6400, f/2.8 and 30 seconds exposure, on a tripod of course. Sometimes it pays off to bring a tripod that's on the heavier side, because it got very windy on that night in the desert.

I had to go approximately a quarter mile off road with my rental, a Toyota sedan, but it was really worth it!

I took the picture of the giant locust at sunrise in March, one of the rare occasions I would be up already that early in the morning.

I applied a lens flare filter to the Spanish padre to give him a little halo.

Horses fighting and kicking at dusk.

The very same horses later at night with a starry sky.

Artificial cactus vs. the real thing.

The scorpion sculpture is actually located right across from the locust sculpture shown before.

That one is modeled after the actual 1946 Willy's Jeep.

I brought a Canon 580EX flash and set it to the lowest setting and triggered it off-camera manually to show the sculpture instead of just a silhouette.

The Indian chief is the only sculpture where two different kinds of metals were being used.