Last week, taking advantage of the waning moon not rising early in the evening, I traveled to the Patriarch Grove of the Bristlecone Pine Forest. The road twists and turns as it wends its way upward to nearly 12,000′ elevation. After passing the Bristlecone Pine Forest ranger station, it is another 9 miles on washboard rough road. This time of year, there are wildflowers and cactus blooming all the way up the mountain.
You cannot tell from this photo, but the hill is very steep here, my feet could barely gain a toehold to take the photo of the tree. The roots are gripping the soil where soil has eroded; Bristlecone Pine roots usually only extend 1′ into the ground.
When the photographers pulled into the lot, they split up and went four different directions. I thought it was strange, but I was off doing my own thing at that point. Later, they congregated in the parking area while I was getting more clothes (two jackets, fuzzy long pants, knit hat – I was sweating 1/2 hour before that). When they started pulling equipment from their trucks, I recognized a set-up I had seen in Washington state last spring. The camera is attached to a what constitutes a tripod with one extremely long leg with a track that moves the attached camera at intervals while it is snapping photos at set times. I asked them if I could find some of their work on the internet and WOW, have they done some beautiful stuff. Look up DreamCore on FaceBook, or look at their website: Timescapes, and you HAVE to click on this link for their Vimeo video. I had no idea I was talking to such talented guys! They had originally split up so they could find the right scene to set up their equipment – they then set it to run automatically from 1 a.m. through 4 a.m. to catch the waning moon rising beside the Milky Way.
Thanks for traveling along with me.
from egghill 
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