On Mother’s Day afternoon I drove to Pinecrest Lake at 6000 feet elevation in the Sierra Nevada mountains. I was anxious to photograph the night sky some place without the light pollution that plagues metropolitan areas like the San Francisco Bay Area.
Well, there was no light pollution, but the moon rose at 84% full that evening, so as twilight turned to night, the moon lit the sky such that the stars could not be seen in their full glory. So that experiment awaits a new moon.
However, as you can see in the gallery there’s a reason photographers call the hour between sunset and full night the “blue hour.” As well, my host and good friend, Dr. Dick Siebert, who joined me at the shore of Pinecrest Lake also experienced the waiting around that makes nighttime photography similar to fishing.
Even though the panoply of stars shown in the final photograph is somewhat lacking, there is a grandeur and peace to being outside in the mountains as day ends and night begins.
