This image has a lot of meaning to me as this was done on the final photo session of my first year of chasing our incredible galaxy, the Milky Way. I started my first astrophotography session in Joshua Tree earlier this year. It was near 3 AM and the temperature was not tolerable and very cold. The photos I got, at the time, to me were impressive. However, upon continuing this chase of the Milky Way and honing my methods and forging my creative process, I improved. This image, 'The Milky Tree', was taken October 21st, 2017. This was the last week with suitable conditions to view the Milky Way in this season for the Northern Hemisphere. I ventured out with my trusty Canon 6D and found this lonely Joshua Tree to be the star of my composition. After waiting for the moon and sun to set and make way for wonderfully dark skies, I begun my shooting. I gathered the images I needed and finally processed 'The Milky Tree.' Iv'e improved vastly from my first astro-photograph and this image has incredible meaning to me in terms of displaying my progress as well as my continually growing passion for capturing the beautiful night sky. This image was processed through a workflow I've developed through the use of Lightroom Adobe Camera RAW, and Photoshop. Through a combination of exposure balancing, temperature/tint adjustments, lens corrections, color balancing, and curve layer masking, I produced my favorite image of the night skies to date.
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