Milky Way

 The Red River Photography Club hosted a field trip to Benjamin, Texas. 

          My first time making images of the stars, I felt so excited that I packed my camera a full week in advance. Mark, Nick, and Mike trekked ahead of the group to mow the grass, grown tall by the high levels of moisture the area has received. The moon was bright until two o'clock. By then, I had left to wind my way back home, delighted about learning about some of tools for sky photography. 

Crepuscular rays at sunset and Ben's camera working to make an undoubtedly great image.

    Of interest only to me, this is my first ever image of the dark sky. If you squint hard enough, you can glimpse Ursa Major in the top half of the picture. The moon lights up the cliffs below. It is the same view that Ben's camera captures in the top image using the basic nighttime camera settings of ISO 6400, f4, and 25 seconds. The difficult part of making these images comes later on, in front of the computer. 

     And this is my favorite image of the evening, rendered with basic post processing for now. The moon washes out the right side of the picture, but one can still see the Milky Way and the group of members in the foreground. The monitors of their cameras light up their faces as they check their shots of the Andromeda nebula. Ben and Gene stand at his camera (with the long lens), Tom stands behind them, Seth sits under the eve of the cabin, and Nick sits to the right.