The Story Behind the Photo #9: Starry Whale Camp on Magdalana Bay

In February, 2012, I went on a multi-day whale watching trip in Magdalena Bay, in Baja, Mexico.  We camped in these tents right on the bay (the ocean is behind the tents and across about 1/2 a mile of dunes), and then each day would go out in small boats to get up close to the gray whales, even getting to repeatedly touch a baby!  Each of the tents had a small battery light in it, and one night after dinner (and some margaritas!) everyone went to bed.  In this camp, if you have to pee you go right into the bay, so I walked down and when I turned around to head back to my tent, I saw this amazing scene. With no lights for miles in any direction, the stars and planets were incredible. I ran back and got my tripod and camera, and shot a few of these exposures.  This particular one is 13 seconds, you can see other photos here.

Note: This is the next in a series I'm doing on my photos with a crowdsourced ranking.  You can see all 20 of the photos here.​​​​​​​