Milky way to McWay falls

Finding a beautiful foreground to showcase the milky way is a challenge that many of us landscape photographers seek actively every year. So when a coastal waterfall happens to line up with the galactic core it offers a tremendous photographic opportunity. I had been trying to get this shot for a few years. Each time I made the trip down to the coast the coastal fog would be so thick that all of the foreground would be blanketed by it. On the day I took this shot, I drove over after a long days work to try my luck once more. The weather looked promising when I first started out, but when I arrived 3 hours later at my destination the sky was completely overcast. Frustrated and exhausted I pulled over to the side of the road and decided to rest and without realizing it I fell asleep. As luck would have it, when I awoke hours later it was to a clear sky. For a second I thought it was a dream. I grabbed my gear and ran down to the spot that best showcases the waterfall. I first shot the milky way with 25-30 second exposures. Once that was done, I started working on the foreground. Each visual element was light painted and exposed for several minutes with the longest being 4 min. The multiple exposures were subsequently blended in photoshop. That night was a truly unforgettable experience which taught me to not give up trying and that sometimes you just have to wait for the shot to come to you.