Vasquez Rocks Engagement Photography + Astrophotography

Our couple wanted to choose a spot a spot special to them and decided on Vasquez Rocks for their engagement photography. He works in the industry and they both love movies, so the location has a special meaning for them. They also wanted to do astrophotography, which we normally don’t do that close to light pollution. Santa Clarita is right over the hills, with the Valley not too far either. We gave it a shot and still captured some amazing astrophotography in Agua Dulce.

Starting with Vasquez Rocks Engagement Photography

Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park is an awesome local spot that has been used in many movies, including the Wrath of Khan. We started at the parking lot to ease into the session.

Gotta love getting some naturally created solar flares in the engagement photos.

Outfit change into a new dress

Since we were still in the parking lot, we had our couple do a quick outfit change into a more flowy and gorgeous dress.

I LOVE the iconic spike or peak of Vasquez Rocks that is in the background of a bunch of our photos. It’s awesome seeing them jut out at a 45 degree angle, going up so high.

Here’s a silhouette up against the deep blue sky while walking along the apex of a rock formation.

And we always love squeezing in one OCF (off camera flash) strobed sunset engagement photo. We hopped up to higher ground to catch the sunset before it dipped below the foothills of Agua Dulce.

Ending the Engagement Shoot near Train Tracks

Now, first and foremost safety is the number one consideration whenever getting images near or especially on railroad tracks. We briefed our couple ahead of time with a safety protocol to make sure they were never in danger and to know how to react if anything did happen (like snagging a dress on a rail sleeper or spike).

Astrophotography in Los Angeles County

Astrophotography in LA County is really hard to do because of the light pollution from the LA metro area. We had to deal with the light pollution also coming from Santa Clarita, but there was enough data in the image files to extract the Milky Way core. By the way, we pride ourselves on taking our astrophotography with only single exposures. All of these images are edited in Lightroom (no photoshopping) with no compositing or stacking.

We left those dots in the background to show that it is indeed a long exposure. Note that each dot is roughly one second, which reflects the 15 second exposures done to capture the stars. That light bloom in the background is a car’s headlights coming down a country road. The Milky Way core was not in the direction away from Los Angeles, but we still had some stars for the background (and no light blooms along the horizon from light pollution).

Vasquez Rocks Engagement Photography and Astrophotography in Los Angeles County

One of our specialties is low-light photography and astrophotography, specifically wide-field astrophotography with the Milky Way Core. It’s a very difficult type of photography to capture, but with our experience and expertise we can make it a comfortable and even fun process. It often requires driving far away from metropolitan areas to get away from light pollution, but this is one of the closer sessions that we have had to/in Los Angeles County.