8 Months in the Planning...

Last August I visited Grand Falls and whenever I'm at a new location I check the Photographer's Ephemeris to see if there is any potential for astrophotography in that area. If you don't know, in a nutshell, the ephemeris lets you know where the sun will rise, the moon will set, etc. in the location you're in. Using the augmented reality feature and also setting the calendar for a future date, you can plan on future shoots. In August the app showed me the Milky Way would be right above the waterfall in late May of this year. For the past eight months I've been planning this trip, the only concern was would the weather cooperate? Well it did, there wasn't a cloud in the sky all weekend. In this image the galactic center of the Milky Way isn't directly above the waterfall but an hour later it was. I have photographs of it being there but by then I was light painting the waterfall but the artificially lit falls didn't look natural to me. I prefer this image even though the center is not directly over the waterfall. Here's a video I shot from that trip: Memorial Day Weekend camping trip.

Spring Has Finally Sprung....

Even though the calendar says it's spring, in these parts it can take a while for warm weather to arrive. I went out on a shoot the other day and found these violets growing next to Sabattus River.