Ursa Major and Me
I love to be out in the wilderness at night, winter nights in particular when there's nobody else around. There's something about the calm stillness of night and wonderful star filled skies of an alberta winter. The air transparency is fantastic as a result of both altitude and lack of humidity, which results in packed displays of stars.
I'm usually chasing the milky way with the 24mm as it's wide aperture sucks in the available light like a vacuum cleaner. This night was no different, I made the short journey to elbow falls from my home in Cochrane and did a bit of 'wool spinning' as I waited for the darkness to close in. Once it was dark enough I moved just upstream of the falls to an open area where the milky way aligns almost perfectly with the river.
On this night low cloud was cutting off the best part of the milky way but I noticed to the west Ursa Major was sitting above the forest, the light from the bright stars was exaggerated by the low cloud and I made an image quickly before it escaped me. But I didn't like the first shot, as the forest was just too dark, so after repositioning the tripod to keep all the stars visible, I took the shot again. This time I stood in the foreground and illuminated the forest by moving a small LED flashlight back and forth along the tree line.
I really do like the result with the snow directly in front of me further illuminated by my headlamp and enhancing my presence there. I had initially thought I would use photoshop to remove myself from the image after the light painting, but I liked it so much I decided to leave myself in there. The red glow you see is light pollution form a nearby town reflecting on those low clouds but I think even that adds something to the image.
I'm usually chasing the milky way with the 24mm as it's wide aperture sucks in the available light like a vacuum cleaner. This night was no different, I made the short journey to elbow falls from my home in Cochrane and did a bit of 'wool spinning' as I waited for the darkness to close in. Once it was dark enough I moved just upstream of the falls to an open area where the milky way aligns almost perfectly with the river.
On this night low cloud was cutting off the best part of the milky way but I noticed to the west Ursa Major was sitting above the forest, the light from the bright stars was exaggerated by the low cloud and I made an image quickly before it escaped me. But I didn't like the first shot, as the forest was just too dark, so after repositioning the tripod to keep all the stars visible, I took the shot again. This time I stood in the foreground and illuminated the forest by moving a small LED flashlight back and forth along the tree line.
I really do like the result with the snow directly in front of me further illuminated by my headlamp and enhancing my presence there. I had initially thought I would use photoshop to remove myself from the image after the light painting, but I liked it so much I decided to leave myself in there. The red glow you see is light pollution form a nearby town reflecting on those low clouds but I think even that adds something to the image.