How to photograph Lake Crowley at night

An Astrophotographers guide.

Lake Crowley is situated east of the Sierra Nevada, between Bishop and Mammoth Lakes. This lake is renowned for its fascinating rock formations, as depicted in the photo above. There are several campgrounds nearby; I stayed at French Campground. If you’re interested in seeing the campground, I’ve created a YouTube video about it.

To capture great night photos, it’s essential to scout the area during the daytime, plan your shots ahead, and return at night. Aim for a new moon night to minimize light pollution and plan your visit during the Milky Way season, which runs from May to October.

For this particular shot, I didn't use a sky tracker due to a malfunctioning intervalometer, which limited me to 30-second exposures. Instead, I took three identical photos with the same camera settings and stacked the RAW files to achieve the final result. I’ll share the Photoshop presets later.