Empyreal

I got off the plane at midnight in Seattle and straight away I headed towards this location up in the mountains. It was late in the fall, but I was told the mountain would still have snow on it.  When I arrived a few hours later, I was alone in a dark parking lot.  I could see the mountain pretty clearly though because of the full moon light so I decided to hike up a trail to get a better view of the surrounding range.  Shortly before sunrise I snapped this picture of Mt. Shuksan being lit up by the pale moonlight and the approaching daylight.

I didn’t think I was going to be able to capture the Milky Way or really any night shot at all because of the moonlight, but with a little camera magic I was able to make it happen.  The funny thing is, I came to this spot to shoot the sun’s early morning rays on the mountain, not the night sky, but to my delight this shot came out perfectly.  I didn’t even shoot the sunrise after I captured this, I went back to my rental car and took a nap in the parking lot!