Southern California Night Sky (2015, Canon 5DMarkIII)

            The Milky Way rises behind Joshua trees in the California desert. Joshua trees are an indicator species for the Mojave Desert ecosystem, stretching from Southern California into Nevada, Arizona and Utah.  

The area with the most and largest Joshua trees is Joshua Tree National Park, but there are Joshua tree forests in Mojave National Preserve and Death Valley National Park as well.

Each of the two species of Joshua tree has its own unique species of Yucca moth. Neither the tree nor the moth can survive without the other. Artificial light contributes to the insect decline that many scientists have dubbed the "insect apocalypse." As the relationship between yucca moths and Joshua tree illustrates, the decline of many insects we may not be particularly aware of will have a serious cascading affect on many larger species that we weren't aware were in danger. As the trees go, bird, rodents and many other species will be impacted as the web of life in the Mojave ecosystem unravels. Light pollution isn't the moth's only threat, but we should do what we can to reduce the odds of ecosystem collapse.

Update May 2020: I replaced the original singe exposure with the result of 20 images stacked.

Single press of the shutter release, several adjacent images moderately post-processed (about 10 minutes from a time-lapse sequence).
No compositing/time-shifting.
No tracking mount.
No noise images, no long exposure foreground images.
No special lighting, or added light.
No new camera or back-lit sensor.
No multiple focal lengths, no focus stacking.
No Photoshop, no layers, no sky or foreground substitution (just Lightroom and a shareware app or two).

Night photography doesn't have to be complicated or time-consuming, or involve special gear beyond camera, lens, tripod. Many cameras produced in the last 13 years and probably all in the last 4-8 years can capture shots like this. I've re-processed images and produced great results from my 2009 Canon 5D Mark II and crop sensor 70D. Join our workshops to find out how!
   

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Taken on: April 19, 2015

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Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark III, f/2.8, 270 sec, 16mm, ISO 6400 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Aperture:	f/2.8
Exposure Time:	270
Focal Length:	16mm
ISO:	6400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 10.1.1 (Windows)
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