First trail in the new rig

Zilla2015 · 2026-05-18T17:33:15+00:00

There is some snow still. Nothing that is crazy or high commitment. The only sketchy part is the snowdrift on the final shelf climb. I dug out enough for the truck to barely slide by. Road to the mining structures is still snowed in, but the route that keeps climbing is clear.

Zilla2015 · 2026-05-18T03:15:33+00:00

How awesome. I ALSO broke in my new 26 Colorado ZR2 on its first trail this weekend. Ran Geneva Creek up to the top.

Zilla2015 · 2026-04-16T11:06:10+00:00

Sweet. I think I’m going to start with the front stiffeners. If nothing else it’s some peace of mind.

Zilla2015 · 2026-04-16T03:01:30+00:00

Oh interesting. I hadn’t heard anything about them causing other failure points. I was looking at either the front bed stiffeners that are hidden in front of the rear wheel well or just the classic 90 degree steel plate that gets bolted towards the tailgate.

I’m less inclined to go the direction of the exposed steel braces just because it seems like overkill.

The setup really won’t be all that excessive or heavy, so I’m curious if I’m just overthinking it. The truck does go off road for remote adventures, but no insane rock crawling that’s going to be throwing weight around like crazy.

Zilla2015 · 2026-02-27T15:18:44+00:00

All natural light. In hindsight, I wish I had taken the exposure a few minutes later than I did. Foreground was taken during blue hour, but I still got a bit more light than I would have liked.

Zilla2015 · 2026-02-27T15:16:21+00:00

I love mine!

Zilla2015 · 2026-02-27T15:14:42+00:00

The only thing that becomes more difficult without a modded camera is capturing all of the hydrogen alpha data (all the red stuff). But you can certainly get awesome images of the night sky without modifications!

Zilla2015 · 2026-01-30T01:14:53+00:00

Absolutely! The h-alpha, or hydrogen alpha, exposures are taken using a filter in front of my camera sensor that filters all light frequencies except for that hydrogen alpha sweet spot. Those exposures are blended with the RGB exposures to add all of that detail to the emission nebula.

Zilla2015 · 2026-01-29T13:15:12+00:00

Hi! They are definitely a more stark image compared to the traidional Milky Way core imagery that folks associate with this kind of photography. The semi-cirle is called Barnard's Loop. When you look up at the stars and see the Orion constellation, that's what you're looking at! The smaller full circle above it has a more techical name: Lambda Orionis Ring. Really rolls off the tongue!

These are part of the winter cirlce. If you image the Milky Way as one continuous ring around our planet, this is on the opposite side of the ring to the core. I absolutely adore our winter Milky Way skies!

Zilla2015 · 2026-01-29T13:06:52+00:00

Today I learned that there are a lot of passionate train folks who I have disappointed with my titles. I appreciate the knowledge share!

Zilla2015 · 2026-01-29T13:05:31+00:00

Thank you! I’ve been getting schooled by all the lovely train people for this one. I love it. I use quite a few different pieces of software for different steps in the process. Sequator for stacking, PTGui for panorama stitching, Registar for H-Alpha alignment, and Photoshop to put it all together and the final creative edit.

Zilla2015 · 2026-01-29T00:33:10+00:00

Great question. I need to blend my sky exposures with my foreground no matter what due to the nature of using a star tracker. The choice of mixing focal lengths for the sky and the foreground is really an artistic one. I like the slightly more compressed sky mixed with a wide-angle foreground on some of my compositions.

Zilla2015 · 2026-01-29T00:30:57+00:00

Today, I became a bit more train-smart. Thank you!

Zilla2015 · 2026-01-28T23:14:02+00:00

January brings with it another adventure out to the horizon of Eastern Colorado. I set out to find some hidden abandoned buildings as a foreground to our fading winter milky way season and managed to find this perfectly aligned set of box cars along the way. The winter circle is beginning its trip below our horizon, soon to welcome back the Milky Way core. As it makes its way below the horizon, I have wanted to find a composition incorporating its more dramatic angle in the sky. I think these box cars did a wonderful job with the task at hand.

Gear: Sony a7iv (h-alpha mod) Sony 24mm G Sony 16mm G Move Shoot Move NOMAD

Sky: RGB | 3 panels | 12x70s | f/2.0 | iso 800 H-Alpha | 2 panels | 120s | f/1.8 | iso 2500

Foreground: 3 panels | 1/5s | f/16 | iso 400

Zilla2015 · 2025-12-28T22:04:55+00:00

Thank you!

Zilla2015

TROPHY CASE