By combining two exposures - one for the night sky and the other for the
landscape at twilight, I was able to create this image. I consider it among
my most unique images to date. What you are looking at is a remote
backcountry in the Tetons and the milky way above. My exposure for the sky
takes in more than five times as much light as is discernable to the naked
eye, using an extremely high ISO (combined with noise reduction techniques),
a big aperture of f/2.8 and keeping the shutter open for 45 seconds. The
sky is totally natural in color despite being relatively invisible to us.
The glow behind the peaks comes from the moon that set almost an hour before
this capture. The bright spot at left is a planet. This shot is a
culmination of technical advancements in photography and a great deal of
diligence on my own part in the field, figuring out how to put it all
together. I camped at this location three nights to achieve this result.