“Like a blazing comet, I’ve traversed infinite nights, interstellar spaces of the imagination, voluptuousness and fear.” Antonio Tabucchi
There is something about the night sky, something primal that compels me to go out and photograph in remote areas in the darkness. The chance to photograph a newly discovered comet was just to tempting to resist.
Neowise is one of the few comets visible to the unaided eye this century. I ventured into the Diablo Mountains south of Hollister California to photograph the comet. The dark skies in these mountains made for ideal viewing conditions. I captured the image above with a Canon 5D MkIV and 70-200 f/2.8 lens.
This image showing the comet was taken from a slightly lower elevation. The glow on the horizon is the light from Hollister. I used an 85mm f/1.8 lens on the Canon 5D MkIV to capture this image.
A few nights later I decided to drive down to Mission San Juan Bautista with the above image of the comet behind the bell tower in mind. I wasn’t sure that the shot would happen since the moon was approaching the first quarter, there was some local light pollution and the comet was starting to fade. I took this shot with a Sony A7 MkII and 70-200mm f2.8 GM lens. It was neccessary to do a focus stack with 2 images to get the bell tower and the sky in focus.
Paul