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Alone Under the Stars

A night under the stars in the vast expanses of the California desert.

By Derek Sturman PhotographyPublished 4 years ago 3 min read
3
"Alliance"

There is an inexplicable feeling of being somewhere alone. The absence of alternative human presence almost forces a person to become completely immersed in place itself. Something I have found is that every place has a very distinct feeling that is almost always entirely unique. This place, tucked away in the vast expanse of the California Desert, produces a feeling of remote and off grid lonesomeness that is hard to replicate.

There where several years where I would plan and day dream about seeing these areas. Knowing of their existence from images alone. Several hours each day would be spent staring at images and wondering about the possibilities this place would hold.

This particular arch was always a point of reference and one of the places I'd hope to visit most. The natural alignment here with the peaks beyond was a photographic dream.

My first trip to this place, I remember the feeling seeing this arch and how refreshing it was to find it seemingly untouched, without being swarmed by thousands of tourists. It felt quite natural and alone, tucked away among the rocks. Nearly everything about this place created a sense of wonder, and I wanted deeply to replicate this in an image.

Shortly after visiting this arch the first time, I discovered the possibility of this alignment. It was immediately a focal point of all my thoughts, getting to catch this alignment and try to create a new perspective here that replicated a sense of wonder that can be felt in night under the stars at the foot of this arch.

It would take me 2 return trips to finally capture the image in a way I would be happy with, each time falling a little more in love with it.

I recall that the first time I ventured to this location it was early march, and I had not prepared properly for cold weather having planned to spend my time in the desert. When I reached this area I thought how foolish it was to not expect the cold temperatures located at this altitude. I had forgotten to back a sleeping bag, really not thinking much of it. That was until I reached the base of these mountains and discovered how cold the nights could be. I ended up having to improvise and just use an emergency blanket each night.

As odd as it may sound I think this experience depend my appreciation for this place, and the remote nature of being present there. Nearly all day I would wander amongst the various rock formations and experience just how quiet it was here. Each night this added to the sense of magnitude created by the dark skies filled with stars dancing overhead.

Alternatively, the cold weather and conditions and seasonal alignments of my first trip here would not allow this alignment. This would subsequently cause me to return here with the intent to capture this image very high on my list.

Each trip here I was able to experience a unique form of wonder that I longed to capture and never quite caught in the image alone. It was a little bit of final processing and ensuring I had captured the image in its maximum quality that allowed me the opportunity to create this final image.

The final image is a blend, using two images one for the foreground and one for the sky allowed me to be able to capture more detail in each area with less image noise. From there I would apply some post processing in adobe lightroom and use Adobe photoshops to merge the images and retain the best detail from each.

I hope that this image will inspire many to experience this sense of wonder in person, and have the chance to spend a night a lone under the stars.

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