The wild and gnarled trees of the Bristelcone Pine Forest have spent thousands of nights like this in the high elevation of the White Mountains, watching the Milky Way rise and fall.  We mere humans were there for but an evening, to get just a taste of that magic, bottling it up like sacred spring water to take back into the valley.
This image is a pretty technical one, blending about 10 exposures for focus and dynamic range, while implementing the low level lighting off frame right to create some textures across the old tree.  All in all it took about an hour to capture this single frame.
I really enjoy shooting nightscapes, and combining creativity with technicality to produce them. If you’d like to see more Nightscapes, check this out this collection!