Snowfire

Since the clocks went back I have been waiting for the the right moon phase to return to Kananaskis at night and  capture a milky way image.  'Done it before' I hear you cry, and you are right to say so, but I still don't feel I have made a great milky way shot. I've made a few good ones now but not a great, stand out, stunning milky way shot and to be honest, after tonight I still haven't.

The right moon phase was earlier this week when a new moon would mean perfectly dark skies, but low cloud washed out each of the three options, but tonight the moon was at 1/8th and low enough to get away with it. Even though some of that hazy cloud from earlier in the week ultimately stuck around beyond predictions and washed over the Milky Way it was well worth the trip. I had a wonderful time all alone in Kananaskis. Fresh snow and a week of temperatures below freezing meant a night in the mountains at -22  was not very high on other peoples agenda, and for me, that's what makes it so great. 

I arrived at the upper lake in good time and wandered around grabbing shots of the beautiful hoar frost on the snow covered ice.  Sunset was curtailed for the most part thanks to a thin cloud that passed through, not only killing sunset but bringing moisture that caused lots of frost on my lenses and camera, and worse still, misting of the glass. 

I did a little 'wool spinning' through the blue hour and this time I added lights along the cable to fill some of the black hole that normally remains in the centre of the spin. I chose differing blues to compliment the orange glow of the sparks.  As it was the Milky Way images were just 'OK' tonight so not really worth posting, but I did like a few of the spinning shots so included one of those instead.   

Quite often we don't always get what we set out to get, wouldn't it be boring if we did. But we can always try to get something even if the intended shot isn't available, just keep on trying because if nothing else, you'll still be learning.