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"What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well." - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

My favorite poet certainly didn't have such a luxurious fountain in mind, when he wrote those words in his famous novella "The Little Prince", but when I saw it during my visit to Death Valley National Park in May, I knew I had to return to shoot it with the rising Milky Way.

EXIF

Canon EOS R, astro-modified

Sigma 28mm f/1.4 ART @ f/2

IDAS NBZ filter

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

Sky:

Stack of 6x 45s @ ISO1600, unfiltered & 5x 105s @ ISO6400, filtered

Foreground:

Focus stack of 5x 4s @ ISO100 during blue hour

Copyright: Ralf Rohner

This month, I was able to tick one of the 'most wanted' places off my bucket list: Racetrack Playa in Death Valley National Park.

After being rattled for 27 miles by the gravel and washboard road, I reached the playa around noon, which gave me ample time to scout the place. Fortunately, temperatures were considerably lower than down in Death Valley.

I found that the trails of the sailing rocks were less obvious than I had expected. While they were visible to the naked eye in the afternoon sun, they hardly showed in my photographs. I wasn't worried though, as I was planning to shoot my foregrounds with light of the setting Moon providing more contrast.

When the Moon finally was in position, I noticed that the trails still were very weak. I therefore decided to add some very low illumination with my low level lights. I was glad to have the place to myself, because I had to position the lights at quite a distance to avoid uneven lighting.

EXIF

Canon EOS-R, astro-modified

Sigma 28mm f/1.4

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

AstroHutech IDAS NBZ filter

Sky

2 panel panorama, each a stack of 6x 45s @ ISO1600, unfiltered & 3x 105s @ ISO6400, filtered

Foreground:

Focus stack of 5x 60s @ ISO1600 in moonlight & 5x 30s @ ISO1600 with low level lighting

Copyright: Ralf Rohner