Six days spent high in Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest ofCalifornia’s White Mountainsdocumenting the Neowise Comet.
Nowise Comet
Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Sony A7RIII
At 10,000-12,000ft above sea level and with the Neowise Comet lighting the night sky, it was a surreal experience exploring this otherworldly place. An alien-like landscape beset by twisted and gnarled trees (which seem to belong in the pages of some dark fairytale book), and where the air is so thin I repeatedly found myself wondering if I was on the brink of having a heart attack. It was a challenging place to work, made harder by the fact that my dumbass wanted to get off the beaten path to search for lesser-known/photographed trees, often finding them but on precarious rocky ledges and steep slopes. However, nothing ventured nothing gained, and 78 time-lapses from just over 35,000 images later, I’m happy with the results. In the end, I believe the risk and effort were worth the reward which was made all the sweeter by the fact that I got to share some incredible moments during the journey with good friends.
White Mountains CA
Ancient Bristlecone Pine with raising Milky Way
Fellow photographer Nao Tharp setting up camera
What little sleep was had happened under some of the clearest skys in the U.S.
Sometimes no tripod is needed.
Sunset over Eastern Sierras.
Part of the trip was spent meeting up with amazing people making the experience that much better.
A few more images during Golden Hour.
Between and about midnight the comet made it's appearance before setting in the north on the horizon.
After which we'd spend the majority of the night shooting the Milky Way and Ancient Bristlecone Pines.
Here’s the final timelapse edit. This video contains less than half of the final timelapses shot on the trip, but many of them are my favorites and I just couldn’t fit them all in. Thank you to everyone who supports and enjoys this kind of work and to those who continue to push me in these efforts.