Photographer: Jennifer Wu
Location: Yosemite National Park, California
Equipment: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM.
Situation: After sunset, the temperature cooled, daytime hikers disappeared, and I hiked alone on a quiet, chilly night. Reaching a hilltop, I set up to take photographs of some boulders that I previously scouted to use as the foreground element. Since the stars and Milky Way look similar in most photographs, I wanted something unique for a landscape scene.
Suddenly, headlamps beamed through the darkness. I was delighted to learn that the hikers who surprised me were an astronomer and his family viewing the stars who agreed to pose in my composition. I positioned them standing on different boulders as foreground elements to the night sky. “Now, stay still and…
