Who Inspires You?
It's a big deal for an artist to find the inspiration to create. As a landscape (and sometimes wildlife) photographer, I usually find plenty of inspiration by just going for a walk outdoors.
Taking an image of the night sky takes a little more planning than just finding my walking shoes and strapping on my camera bag. That’s a lie. It’s a lot. I have to map out the 'dark sky' areas near me, research sunrise, sunset, moonrise times, figure North Star and Milky Way angles for my planned spot, check weather forecasts for clear skies, and pack my bag for potentially frigid temperatures. When all of the elements align (dark, clear skies with no or a new moon, temperatures that I can reasonably withstand for several hours), I try, and sometimes fail to muster the energy for staying up or getting up in the wee hours of the night and heading out to a remote location. Having said all that, you'd think that the barriers are too great, and no sensible person would go out for star photography. It's true, it's very hard sometimes. However, I never claimed to be a sensible person, and it's so very rewarding. If I had to rank my own photographs of all time, my top 3 would be from my Night Sky collection.
So what makes Orion Rising special? I had a very special inspiration; my best friend Elizabeth. She also loves my night sky photography, but she had a very good question for me. She asked me why I had only one star trail photograph. Well, why DO I only have one star trail photograph? I like star trails. I should take more photographs of star trails.
So the first night I went to Harvey Gap. (OK, actually the first night I wanted to go out it was completely socked in with clouds, so I didn’t bother.) It’s fairly high on my “frequently visited” list. It has three staples of night sky photography; it’s very dark, there is an interesting skyline AND a nice, flat reflective body of water. Unfortunately for me it’s December, and that means it’s cold. I’ve certainly been out in colder weather, but the issue for successful astrophotography is that you have to be planning on extended periods of time out in the elements. A good star trail photo takes at the very least 20 minutes, but usually more like an hour. For just one photo. It’s not a ‘high output’ kind of photo session.
So that first night I set up in a spot I wasn’t very familiar with (mistake!) and started taking practice shots. I’m still very novice at lighting the foreground but I thought I’d experiment because I found a tree for which I very much liked the silhouette (mistake!). After a few more test shots to make sure I had the whole tree in frame, I started the ‘live composite’ mode and let ‘er rip. The image seemed to be building up nicely on the viewfinder so I let it run for the whole hour. I moved, took a few more tests and then started a second star trail shot, without checking my battery (mistake!). I could only run the second shot for about 20 minutes before the battery died. A night full of mistakes. And frosty toes. And nothing to show for it.
When I looked at the results the next morning I was unhappy. And I knew I’d be heading out again the next night.
I decided to visit one of my other frequent photography spots; Rifle Gap. It’s only about 30 minutes from my home, it’s far enough from the city that it receives very little light pollution, and it has those same staples of night sky photography; an interesting skyline and the reflective body of water. This time I picked a spot I knew, I didn’t mess around with foreground lighting, and I made sure my battery was fully charged.
Someday I’m going to nail the foreground lighting thing. But this was not that day.
I also brought my sleeping bag to wrap up in while I waited. I still ended up with some nearly frost-bitten toes, but it wasn’t quite so bad.
I’m quite happy with the two new editions to my Night Sky Collection. Go check it out, and let me know what you think!
