Yucca Blossoms and Milky Way
2019 seems to be an especially good year for yucca in southern Arizona. Their flower stalks have shot up all over the place bursting with white blooms. I decided to combine my love of the night sky with these beautiful desert plants by shooting this yucca portrait against the Milky Way. The shallow depth of field at f1.8 throws the background into a soft blur while the yucca remains in sharp focus. You can even make out the rugged profile of the Chiricahua mountains in the background.
This single exposure made with a Nikon D750, 50mm f/1.8, 30 seconds at ISO 1600. During the exposure, I illuminated the yucca flowers with a brief burst from a small hand held LED light panel.
Technical Details
- Object: Yucca Blossoms and Milky Way
- Date/Time: 2019 Jun 05 at 9:00 UTC
- Location: Portal, AZ
- Tripod: Bogan/Manfrotto 3001
- Lens: Nikon 50mm f/1.8
- Camera: Nikon D750
- Exposure: 30s, f/1.8, ISO 1600
- File Name: MilkyWay2019Jun05-1006w.jpg
- Processing (Adobe Bridge): Lens Correction, Noise Reduction
- Processing (Adobe Lightroom): Curves, Contrast
- Original Image Size: 3946 × 5939 pixels (23.4 MP); 13.1" x 19.8" @ 300 dpi
- Rights: Copyright 2019 by Fred Espenak. All Rights Reserved. See: Image Licensing.
Milky Way Photo Galleries
- For more photographs of the Milky Way, please visit the following galleries: