Wait for the Midnight Hour...

As interesting as the ghost town of Bodie is during the day, it has an even more spectacular attraction after dark. Situated in the Sierra Nevada mountain range at an elevation of 8379 feet (2554 m), it's one of the few areas in California where you have little or no light pollution and thanks to the high elevation there is also no atmospheric distortion. The main event of the evening is the Milky Way, and the best time to photograph it in panorama is around 11:00pm, so we started by testing and fine-tuning our night photography skills on other buildings and celestial bodies...

This type of night time photography is best done with a full-frame sensor with as little noise as possible since we were frequently shooting at iso3200-6400 with 30 sec exposures at f/2.8. There are a couple of nights per summer where visitors are allowed to remain in the park until 10:00PM or so, but to stay even later you need a permit, and when all is said and done, the easiest way to get that permit is to join one of Jeff Sullivan's photo workshops.

The town church...



And the old store...

Even an abandoned truck looks amazing under the Milky Way!

Downtown Bodie...

 



The Old Mill...

An finally a 180 degree view of the Milky Way over the old mill. 10 shots stitched in Photoshop

 

 

It was close to 1:00AM as we headed back to the car, but we couldn't resist just one last shot of the church





Bodie Ghost Town, waiting for nightfall

This years USA trip included a few days in and around Yosemite. Since we have already visited Yosemite a few times, we were looking for something new on this trip, and as luck would have it we found an after dark photo workshop in Bodie ghost town, focusing on the Milky Way over Bodie. In the middle of summer this meant waiting until after 10PM to begin the nighttime photography, so between our arrival at 6:30PM  and then we had several hours to explore Bodie on our own and shoot in the setting sun...

Green Street...

Pews filled with ghosts...

Siding made out of tin cans...