Wildlife, landscape and weather photography
Today, NASA successfully landed its InSight probe on the red planet. That made me recall all the times this past summer when I was doing astrophotography and staring up at the Milky Way and a very bright, red ‘star’ – Mars.
Seen here in this image taken back in September, you can see InSight’s new home toward the bottom left corner. Of course from the probe’s point of view, we are little more than a bright blue dot in the sky. Kind of cool to think about.
Living in the city, you forget just how beautiful the night sky can be without all the light pollution. That’s why I absolutely love going to Colorado’s high country. You get away from the people, the crowds, the city lights and at night, you can just stare up in awe at the stars.
On this night a couple weeks ago, I was able to situate myself such that not only were the stars above, they were also reflected on Brainard Lake’s surface. Kind of fun and very, very pretty. That glow on the horizon is from Longmont and other Front Range cities.
From last weekend’s trip to the Colorado high country. Taken on Friday night, I was pretty beat after working and driving but made myself leave the warm bed at camp and go out and capture a few images of the show after dark. Certainly, ideally, I would have gone far later at night but as is, the images didn’t come out too bad.
Here, you clearly see the center of our galaxy and as an added bonus, Mars (bright red, bottom left). Just below Mars, the lights from a plane is seen and if you look close toward the top right you see the faint light trail of a satellite.
Last winter I bought myself a second camera body (#Canon 6D Mark II) and a fast, wide angle lens (EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM). Landscapes and stars were my biggest reason for selecting this gear and while I have indeed used it on daytime subjects, I had yet to use it on the night sky – until last week.
It wasn’t ideal but there was a brief window of a couple of hours between sunset and moonrise and I gave it a shot. I came away with some captures that I am pretty pleased with, including this one. You can see the center of our galaxy and, that bright, red light to the bottom left is Mars, at the time its closest to Earth in years. The trails of two satellites are also seen. The glow on the horizon is light from Granby and Winter Park.
Ideally this would have been taken later at night / earlier in the morning during a new moon and in a bit more remote location, something I am going to be trying to do in the coming weeks. But, given the situation, I think this came out pretty good. I did goof and forget to take off my polarizer filter which meant a higher ISO than what would have been needed otherwise and haze from wildfires in California had an impact as well.
Escaping to Colorado’s high country affords you peace and quiet away from the busy Front Range and at night, goodness, the stars you can see are breathtaking.
On this particular evening a couple of weeks ago, I took a short hike from where we were camped to take it all in. Looking south across the Moraine Park area, the darkness was all enveloping but with no light pollution, above were millions of points of light. The Milky Way was working its way across the sky and, in this capture, if you look toward the top you will even see a meteor streaking through.
While I certainly took pictures, I also made sure to stop and sit and just look and listen, taking it all in.
Such an amazing experience that I will never forget! If anyone is interested in pics of the event, let me know – I think I got some great ones!
Fans of Superman will get the reference there. 😉
As I mentioned yesterday, the last few days have seen our normally clear, blue Colorado skies obscured with smoke from wildfires in Oregon and Montana. Yesterday morning as I arrived at my photo destination right at sunrise, I couldn’t help but take note of the rather odd coloring of the sun.
The smoke gave it distinctive red coloring and the light was so filtered, I was able to shoot directly at it without any sort of filter. There were even a few sunspots easily visible. Kind of cool but also kind of eerie.
During a recent visit to our neighboring state to the north, I took the opportunity to get out and do some astrophotography. I don’t really have the right gear to do this justice (need a faster lens) but it is fun to go out and see what I can come up with. Here you do get a pretty good view of our galaxy although there were a few, light clouds that intruded on the view.
Stepping outside my comfort zone here and piggybacking on some ideas for collages I saw online. This one takes 11 images of the various stages of the solar eclipse from start to finish as seen from Goshen County, Wyoming. I am far from a Photoshop pro as I rarely need to use it for most of my work but this one came out pretty good I think.
All images taken with my Canon 7D Mark II and a Sigma 150-600 Sports.
Three years ago my brother mentioned the eclipse to me and we said then we were going to go and I am so thankful that I did. For the photography I did a lot of reading, planning and practicing and it panned out. I captured the event from start to finish and overall think the pics came out quite well.
Here is a series of eight images together – the top four showing the eclipse beginning and the bottom four showing it ending. Me thinks a trip to Texas in 2024 may be in order! 😉
