Wildlife, landscape and weather photography
Clear skies and getting away from city lights allowed me to get out and shoot the stars this past Monday. It was, as always, amazing to me to see how many points of light are above when conditions are right – it is breathtaking.
Here, thanks to a long exposure, you can see the center of our galaxy. The bright ‘star’ you see is actually Saturn and toward the left edge of the image you can see two, faint meteors streaking side by side
I visited this awesome Colorado park this past weekend for the first time since I was probably only thigh-high to an adult. It was a great visit getting away from the city and signifies the start of my camping season in earnest.
One of my big goals for the weekend was Milky Way photography. Well, Mother Nature had other plans. I set my alarm, crawled out of the warm comfort of my sleeping bag at 3:00am, emerged to 38 degrees and… Clouds! Being a sailor, you can imagine I used a few “colorful metaphors.” 😀
Nevertheless, I was awake so figured I might as well snap some pics. In between the cirrus clouds you could get a hint of the brilliant display of stars that you can see once you get away from population and lights.
I didn’t get the images I wanted but I did appreciate the quiet and solitude standing on the shoreline of the lake without another person in sight.
Just a quick edit of one of my pics of the big celestial event last night as I had to get to bed and sleep before work today.
We were very lucky here in the Denver area in that while we had clouds much of the day yesterday, it cleared off quite nicely after dark. That gave us prime viewing for the so-called “Super Blood Wolf Moon” (or whatever the hype-masters called it). 😉
One of the things that struck me most about the event was that once totality was reached, the stars really brightened up and became quite visible. Here in the city, we don’t usually see so many except when there is a new moon.
I decided this is probably one of my favorite shots from the night as it offsets the moon and allows you to really see all the stars.
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.
