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Pointing Toward the Heavens

Photographers often suggest you look to see what's in back of you when photographing or you might miss out on something better. While photographing Comet NEOWISE in late July, that's exactly what I did. Comet in front of me, Milky Way in back. I had to photograph both. This is the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains by Owens Valley. At over 10,500 ft (3200m) in elevation, the sky is clearer, the stars more visceral, and the smile much larger. The bristlecone pines are some of the oldest living things on the planet, some growing before Buddha or George Burns walked the earth. I illuminated the ancient pine with a handheld ProtoMachines LED2 light painting device during the exposure for the earthbound elements, and let the universe do the lighting for the rest.

Books, photos, and workshops: www.kenleephotography.com

(6726) Nikon D750/Irix 15mm f/2.4 lens. Earth: 200s f/2.5 ISO 400. Sky: 31 "stacked" photos, each one 15 seconds f/2.5 ISO 4000. 23 July 2020.

Way to take a picture of a different bristlecone! Original! Fantastic. So many great trees outside the one one the discovery trail.

I love that tree you’re referring to as well. In fact, one of my photos of that tree made it into National Geographic Books. But I wanted to take some photos of trees that rarely get photographed. Thanks!!

That tree gets loved to death, the plants around it have been trampled to death, by photographers. That tree is already dead but soil erosion happens at a much accelerated pace there. It's going to topple that tree.

“Loved to death” is a very accurate phrase. The last time I photographed there the Milky Way was out. I walked up to find the tree surrounded by 25 photographers. That was a few years ago, probably 2018.

I ran into that too. It was a class. I told the forest service and they said they pulled all special use permits for “night photography classes” for this reason specifically. If you see that you should tell someone. Technically the park is closed after 10pm. But there are so many other locations up there not at Schulman grove waiting to be photographed that don’t close and aren’t crazy impacted.