Shooting the Stars at Joshua Tree

Intro

Taking pictures of the stars has long been something I wanted to try. Living in the city however doesn’t really allow me to take astrophotography whenever I want, what with the constant light pollution that Los Angeles and its surrounding cities produce. I learned you can just simply point your camera to the sky and expect thousands of stars to appear in your photos. So…I set out on a mission to finally try to take pictures of the stars…in Joshua Tree National Park.

Since I never been I thought I’d make a bit of a weekend getaway out of it, taking my girlfriend along so we can try to see the stars together.

The drive to Joshua Tree was a cool 2 hours from Los Angeles, and when we got there is was pretty much what we expected. A dry dessert setting piled high with giant rock formations and Joshua Trees as far as the eye could see. It was far enough from city and any light pollution so the stars could easily be seen floating above in the night sky.

Gear

For this journey I knew I needed a lens that would be wide enough to capture rock formations in the foreground and let a lot of light in since it would be dark so I also needed a low aperture. The Tamron SP 35mm 1.8 was the perfect option when paired with my Canon EOS RP full frame camera. I also brought along an intervalometer, tripod and my GoPro Hero 7 Black to film with.

Astrophotography

The first thing you need to know about Joshua Tree is it gets very very dark when the night falls. You have to be prepared with flash lights and a map. (they actually recommend to use red lights so your eyes don’t need to readjust to the dark) I had to have a plan and know where I was going, lucklily during the day when I was exploring the park I scouted locations that would make a good foreground in front of the stars.

I noted Skull Rock right away and how close it was to the main road so I wouldn't have a long walk away from the car at night.

That was the first spot we went to at night, as a bonus most of crowd that was there during the day was gone to I had the spot all to myself. At first I tried going along with the Canon RP’s light meter, starting with about 8 to 10 second exposures. As the night went on I experimented with longer exposures and using the passing cars to my advantage as they created light trails that would cut across my compositions.

Eventually I changed spots and drove down the main road to other formations that were close by. Trying to capture the rocks and many Joshua Tree’s the park is famous for.

I just kept shooting and shooting, hoping the stars were coming out in my photos bright enough, until my battery pack gave out.

Notes

Overall I felt ok with the photos I got after reviewing them. I was admittedly disappointed I didn’t get those dramatic milky way shots with thousands of stars in the background but it being my first time shooting this type of photography, there was still a lot I needed to learn, and that’s ok.

The first mistake I learned was in order to best capture the stars in your photos, the night has to be very dark. The phases of the moon are an important key to astrophotography. The night me and my girlfriend went the phase of the moon was at waxing gibbous phase, meaning the moon was out and bright, therefore causing the sky to be more illuminated than it would be during the phase of a new moon.

It’s also important to emphasize the need of a plan, since this was my first time at the park I was overwhelmed by the many spots and photo opportunities there were. It was a lot to take in and I just wanted to do it all, while juggling all my photo gear around and trying to Vlog at the same time. Think next time I’ll just keep it simple and stick to one spot and take longer exposures maybe even time lapses.

In all this was a learning experience and astrophotography was a challenge I aim to try again at.