On the Road: Milky Way and Sunrise Photography

After almost a week of filming, we just packed up and left Grand Teton National Park. We were very lucky to capture some great light, and we had a few clear nights to take good Milky Way photos as well. We’re now heading to Yellowstone for some photos — hopefully avoiding the crazy tourists — and then going north to film some videos throughout Montana.

In the past couple of days, we’ve filmed two more case study videos: Nighttime Photography and Advanced Composition. Yesterday morning, we woke up at 3AM to photograph the stars over the Grand Teton range. Based on an app that we use, we knew ahead of time exactly where the Milky Way would be, but it was still such an incredible sight to see in person. The night was completely cloudless and calm, and the reflection of the Tetons in the water turned out perfectly. Our video covered the making of this photo in-depth, and our tutorial will include the full-resolution 36 megapixel RAW for you to follow along with our post-processing.

NIKON D800E + 20mm f/1.8 @ 20mm, ISO 3200, 20/1, f/2.2

This morning, we also woke up early — 5AM rather than 3AM — to film Advanced Composition at sunrise. Thank you to Beth and Kurt at the Teton County Library for all the help with locations! We went to the library to meet them, and they were such wonderful people — we love meeting up with Photography Life readers. Because of their recommendation, we decided to film sunrise at the Patriarch Tree with the Tetons in the background. The light was great for photography, and both the mountains and the tree caught some gorgeous colors.

NIKON D810 + 24-120mm f/4 @ 78mm, ISO 64, 6/10, f/8.0

The Grand Tetons aren’t all about landscapes, though, even though that’s the video that we are filming. One of the coolest things we’ve seen so far was a weasel who had managed to catch and run with a squirrel in its mouth. It was moving very quickly, but I managed to get a couple shots before it dashed out of sight. Not something you see every day!

NIKON D800E + 70-200mm f/4 @ 200mm, ISO 1100, 1/400, f/4.0

As we move farther north, we won’t have as much access to cell coverage, so our updates may have to take a break. Although we aren’t filming in Yellowstone, we’re hoping to take some nice photos and catch up on a few articles. We’ve scheduled a few posts for the coming days, so stay tuned! If you would like to submit a guest post for the coming few weeks, check out our original article about the process. More updates will follow as soon as possible.

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