Week 88 — Bottomless Infinity

“Night poured over the desert. It came suddenly, in purple. In the clear air, the stars drilled down out of the sky, reminding any thoughtful watcher that it is in the deserts and high places that religions are generated. When men see nothing but bottomless infinity over their heads they have always had a driving and desperate urge to find someone to put in the way.” — Terry Pratchett, Jingo

It’s been a while since I posted the last photo of the week¹, as I’ve been preoccupied with my 30 Days with the Fuji 35mm f2 project and distracted by various holiday activities. Now that both “distractions” are in the past, though, I’m returning to the photo of the week project with a renewed vigor!²

This week’s shot comes from last month’s trip to Joshua Tree National Park. I was expecting to have some really good skies for astrophotography, but as it turns out there’s quite a bit of haze and light pollution in the park (presumably caused by LA). I had heard that the area is pretty good for astrophotography, so maybe I just caught it at a bad time… I took a couple stabs at timelapses and milky way shots, but I wasn’t too impressed with any of the results. This is probably my favorite night shot of the trip, but I wish I would have stretched this into a 30 or 40 minute exposure to really stretch out those star trails. Oh well…I still think it looks pretty neat… 🙂