Third Stop: Roosevelt Dam (The Last of Arizona Part 4)
Three weeks. Two cameras. One man desperately speedrunning all his favorite photography spots.
16mm, 30s for 175 shots, f/8, ISO 640. Stacked using a free software called StarStaX.
The full moon is so bright in the sky that I barely need my headlights to see. Thick, puffy clouds slide across the sky, casting beams of moonlight on the desert landscape.
The smell of rain permeates the air around the dam, and it’s so quiet that two hikers’ conversation can be heard from across the lake.
16mm, 10s for 25 light frames and 25 dark frames, f/8, ISO 1600. Stacked using a software called Starry Landscape Stacker for Mac.
Light pollution from the Phoenix metro area hangs over the dam, a bright unnatural yellow crowding out the night sky and drowning out stars whose light has traveled across the void of space for millions of years. It’s almost tragic, in some way.
But despite the encroaching tragedy that is Phoenix, the view of the bridge over the lake is still a tranquil one.
Normally the sky over the bridge is wide open, inviting you to stare and drink in the view for hours, watching as the stars rotate around the Earth.
Tonight, though, the clouds are ominous and foreboding.
It feels like a storm is coming.
16mm, 2.0s, f/1.8, ISO 400