Picture of the week

Tree of the night

An ancient bristlecone pine tree with the milky way of the night sky in the background.

This is one of my favorite trees up at the Schulman Grove in the White Mountains east of Bishop, California.  The gnarled shape and separation from the other trees in the area make it an ideal photographic subject. Some of the trees in this forest are over 4000 years old. This particular one appears to be dead, but its roots are still providing a firm foundation, keeping it upright.  Due the high altitude of just over 10,000', arid environment, and relatively extreme temperatures of the area, the trees have few other competitors for this terrain.

This area has relatively dark skies, and thus is a good location for night photography.  I have been trying to further refine my technique for such photographs, traveling to this forest to test them out, with this reflecting my latest efforts to get better quality results.  It was photographed with a Canon 5D mark III, using a Samyang 14mm f/2.8 prime lens, with settings of ISO 6400, f/3.2, and 25 seconds. To better light the foreground I have come up with a better arrangement making use of a larger diffuser, gel, and LED based video lamp with a dimming control.  This has allowed for a more precise control of the illumination, resulting in more pleasing images versus my older clumsier method of utilizing a headlamp.  Another composition of this tree is shown here on the right also posted on my flicker site.

All content and images are property of Stephen Fischer Photography, copyright 2014.  Last updated: 8/26/2014   ()