Temple of the Sun & Moon, with Milky Way, at the Vernal Equinox

[Bo Zarts]

19. The sky was shot at ISO 3200 f/1.8 and 10 seconds (to avoid star trails) ..

Shortly thereafter, the foreground was shot at ISO 3200 f/1.8 and 120 seconds. Both images were merged in Adobe Lightroom. After merging, the foreground required a lot of lightening to make it work.

However, even in the moonless dark there was enough starlight to (barely) see the foreground. I shot these images with a Sony A7-R5 full-frame mirrorless camera and a Sigma 17-40 mm f/1.8 DC Art lens, on a very sturdy tripod. The Sigma lens is new, and I absolutely love it.

Once the "blue hour" started, at about sixty minutes before sunrise, it was a different ballgame. During "blue hour" I moved from national park land to nearby BLM land (Bureau of Land Management) where drone flying is legal, and forgot about the starry sky altogether to concentrate on the incredible geology and topography of the area. I'll probably post some of those drone (DJI Mini 5 PRO) shots later.