Entry 2 - Throwback Thursday: Yosemite Milkyway Trip w ToAST
I’m starting a Throwback-Thursday segment to reflect on previous events I’ve experienced.
Lets throw it back to A couple weekends ago to my trip to Yosemite. It was planned around the new moon for a chance at shooting the milky way. If you’ve never seen the milky way in person, I highly recommend it as a bucket list item. It’s absolutely stunning! An overwhelming feeling of just being able to see the the entire galaxy and the occasional shooting star. I’m currently getting goosebumps by just thinking about it, & if you know me it takes a lot for that to happen.
Anyways, it was doooope. Accompanied by the homie ToAST, we left Friday around 4, drove 6 hours due to traffic. After almost running out of gas, we finally made it to the top of Glacier Point and started taking it all in. It was around 11 pm and I was running around like a child at a candy store. It seemed like the sky was the Las Vegas Strip with all of the flashing lights.
After collecting a fair amount of shots, We go back to my 4Runner, I rolled up a blunt, and smoked it while gazing at the stars and listening to some Ta-ku. I remember saying ‘These are the moments in my life I live for.’ After getting some energetic encouragement, we proceeded to round 2 of shooting.
I had seen ToAST had some ‘Selfie’ shots of himself & the milky way and immediately wanted mine. We came up with the coolest/sketchiest photo I’ve been a part of, & I’ve done some sketchy shit for my shots before but nothing like this.
The idea was to stand on the edge of a cliff we found and point a flashlight into the sky to simulate me lighting up the constellation of stars. I remember looking off the cliff down into the dark hazy abyss. I was legit scared but due to my elevated mindset (literally) I looked up to the sky and gave all of my trust to the galaxy that was there before me. Note: We were shooting long exposure shots so I had to stand perfectly still for 30 seconds while standing on the edge of this cliff. I took it as a moment of zen, & thanks to ToAST’s skills, this was the outcome:
After risking my life for a few Instagram likes we headed back to my car for a quick nap before Sunrise.
Woke up at the crack of dawn to catch the sunrise, & met a couple of photographers who were also there for the same experience. As we were getting ready for the sun to peak over Halfdome, we caught some dudes jumping off the cliff in squirrel suits. I caught them on video:
After that, the sun proceeded to rise and we got some dope shots. Here are some more pictures I took. Another awesome experience in the books (:
Be sure to check out ToAST on IG @ps_ToAST .
He does some beautiful work.
Snapchat: Richarzardd
Stay blessed,
Rich