Mount Lemmon is a very wonderful place to capture some great views near Tucson Arizona. The most popular spot on the mountain for visitors is windy point vista which is about halfway up the mountain. However, just one Vista above windy point it is my favorite view on the mountain.
Geology Vista point offers views of spectacular rock Spires called hoodoos and a very expansive view of the mountains below the point. The most often photographed portion of the view at this spot is looking down towards the road leading up to windy vista point. You can see some of the winding road framed by hoodoo rock formations and above that is the city lights and a gorgeous view of the sky.
Here is a map to the location (Right):
The first time I captured this view was in 2014. I merged together a few exposures during twilight hours and included some long exposure to capture car trails.
2017 Three Years Later
I returned to this spot 3 years later with a full-frame Camera
This scene was absolutely beautiful this night and the capture really reflected my improvement in skill from the 2014 version.
2018 Milky Way View
In 2018 I was spending a bit more time planning landscape photos. I had recently discovered the Plan it! photography app and was looking at some of my favorite locations on the map. I looked up geology Vista point and discovered a few months later the Milky Way would line up perfectly with the road.
Plan it! photography app screenshots
I was unsure how well the Milky Way would expose considering the city lights in the view but fortunately Tucson is a low light ordinance city due to nearby observatories and the Milky Way is possible to capture above the city. I blended together several horizontal photos using my 35 millimeter Canon 1.4 L lens. I captured photos at various exposure settings in order to get a full dynamic range of light from the pitch-black foreground to the really bright city lights and dim Starlight to blend them all together almost seamlessly.
Note: any of the above images are linked for purchase on my print store. The links for the photography app are also affiliate links. Thanks for the support!
