Northern Night Sky...

Spent my birthday this year photographing the Milky Way over this trestle in northern Maine.

Another From The Archives...

I went through my archives the other day and found this image I took during February of 2016. There was a sodium vapor street lamp behind me which cast a very orange glow to the lighthouse, I tried to get rid of the orange in Photoshop but didn't have any luck so I decided to convert to black and white. I'm glad I did because I think this version looks pretty good. I used Silver Effects Pro to convert and it did a real nice job of bringing out the Milky Way. It shows up more in this version than the color. The one thing I remember about this shoot was how cold it was, 10 below zero Fahrenheit, it was the first time my camera battery went dead because of the temperature.

Birthday Photo....

A photo I took of the Milky Way on the evening of my birthday earlier this month.

Reid State Park Milky Way....

Here's an image from a while back taken at Reid State Park. It's a blend of two separate images. The sky taken at f2.8, 30 seconds and the foreground taken at f2.8 and an 8 minute exposure. The foreground and background were then blended in Photoshop.

Harpswell, ME.....

I recently photographed the lobsterman statue at Lands End, Harpswell. This time of year the Milky Way aligns with the city of Portland and the city lights wash out the galactic center. This is a single exposure of thirty seconds and I was lucky enough to catch two shooting stars in that time.

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.

Tent by Fire Light.......

Here's another photo from the Seboomook camping trip. This didn't come out how I had envisioned because the next campsite over had a fire going so it lit up the whole area cancelling out the light from inside the tent. Not everything goes as planned.

Off Grid...

I just spent some time in northern Maine on the north edge of Moosehead Lake. I camped out of my van which I recently bought just for that purpose. I stayed in a place called Seboomook Wilderness Campground, it had some amenities but internet was not one of them and I must say I enjoyed it. Being that far north light pollution is almost non-existent so it's an ideal location for astrophotography. This photo was taken near the boat launch where the campgrounds canoes are stored.

Best Time To Be At The Beach.......

This is what I did on my birthday last week.

Night Time Sentry....

I came up with the idea to shoot this image last year but before I did I saw a photo like it on someone else's website. I didn't want it to seem like I was copying an unoriginal idea so I never took the photograph. This year I reconsidered because even though it's the same subect, everyone has there own way of seeing things. Last Monday after work I drove to Land's End to take the picture. This is a blend of two images, one with the lens focused at infinity for the milkyway and the second focused on the statue. For the statue I used live view and zoomed in on the head and by lighting it up with my flashlight I was able to see to get a sharp focus. Both exposures were 30 seconds at f2.8, there's a building right behind me and behind the building there was a street light providing enough ambient light to illuminate the statue.

Pemaquid Revisited....

After looking at my photos from Pemaquid last week, I wasn't totally satisfied, I knew I could do better. I thought about it all week and envisioned the type of photograph I wanted to take. My original plan was to go early Sunday morning but the below zero temps kinda put a damper on that so I decided to go Monday morning. Well, the temps didn't warm up at all but the sky conditions were right for the image I wanted. I have two apps on my iPad, Sky Walk and The Photographer's Ephemeris that show all the features of the night sky and where they'll be at certain times of the day and times of the year. Normally the milkyway is photographed during the new moon because moon light will wash out the stars. This particular day the quarter moon set at 12:30 AM so I knew there wouldn't be that extra light to deal with. My two apps showed the milkyway would rise shortly before 4 AM and this time of year it's low in the sky in the east, just above the horizon. I got up at 2:30 AM and hit the road, it was 10 below zero F. This is one of the images I took, It's a combination of 5 five photos combined in Photoshop to make the panorama. Monday morning was the first time I had a battery stop working because of the cold, luckily I had just bought a spare so I was able to exchange it and keep on clicking. By the time I got home shortly before 7 AM the temp had dropped to 15 below, I'm so glad I had hand warmers. It's hard to make out in this picture, but the sub zero temperatures created plenty of sea smoke. The base exposure for the combined images was 30 secs. at F2.8 and ISO 3200. The camera sees more stars in the sky then you can with your naked eye.

Acadia By Night...

Here's one of many photos I took while in Acadia. I had gone to Jordan Pond and The Bubbles to do some night photography and was on my way back to the motel. The Milky Way wasn't visible over The Bubbles, like I had hoped but when I drove through this open area it was in view in all it's splendor. I recently purchased my first full frame sensored camera so I was finally able to take full advantage of my 16-35mm wide angle zoom at its widest. On my crop sensor camera I was only getting the equivalent of 28mm at the widest, (the camera geeks will know what I'm talking about). Now I can get so much more of the sky than before, I'm loving it.

Another Milky Way Attempt...

My last trip to Reid State Park to photograph the Milky Way did not produce any Milky Way shots. I went back at the beginning of the month to attempt it again. At this time of year the Milky Way doesn't appear over the Atlantic like back in June and July, it's more west, although if I was at the same spot as the last Reid post it would've been over the beach. However it was clearer the night I was there and I think the lights of Portland would've been an issue. The trees in the background of this image helped block the lights because I was down low looking up. This image is a combination of two. The milky way was exposed at ISO 3200, f2.8 for 30 seconds focused at infinity. For the foreground I focused on the rocks in the front and exposed that at ISO 1600, f2.8 for 6 minutes.

My Attempt.....

The internet has been inundated with Milky Way photos lately but here's my first attempt taken last night at Reid State Park.