So, early this morning, pretty much at around midnight, I finally went and did what I have been looking forward to doing since I moved back here last Autumn – head up into the mountains and do some night time, starry sky shooting!  Well, with some gas left over in the car from the Denver trip, and the sky actually clear, I was going to take advantage of being able to do so!

I knew the exact place I wanted to go to, it was a place I would only seem to go to at this time of night, the last time I lived here in the late 90′s.  It was also where I wrote of (I think) before I even moved back here, of where I had like an out-of-body experience, where looking up at the endless starry night sky, I glanced up, and it was like a seam in the sky was pulled back, revealing only blackness behind… my mind adjusting and wrapping around what it was it was like I was seeing, I glance back, and it was all normal and the starry night sky.

Funny how age plays on oneself… as I said, I always only seemed to mostly venture to this location during the dead of night, which is fifteen to twenty miles west of town into the mountains, where the only light is from the night sky itself.  And I remember the magical feeling of being able to see by only the illumination of the stars, and being energized by that, being and feeling one with the nocturnal world I was ghostly able to perceive.  This morning, sixteen years later, I must admit, that I was a little tense doing so walking through the trees in nothing but star light.  Funny how one grows seemingly more scared and timid with age, when in one’s youth, nary a thought was had on it!

Anyway, funny how the path, and the familiarity of the surroundings came back to me after all these years… ah yes, the clearing to my left… the fork in the path… and it leading all out of the trees into this clearing, and the unobscured view of the vast night sky and it’s infinite stars!

So set up the ol’ tripod and camera, with my 35mm on the front, and took the first two you see above.  Of course, the Milky Way, which I have been looking forward to photograph, doesn’t look as clear to our naked eyes, as they are not as light sensitive as camera sensors are (I just did a class on this to a group of sixth graders – our eyes have a comparable ISO sensitivity of 500 – 1000, while, of course, cameras can go to 6400 and up), so I could just faintly tell that the more defined part of our home galaxy, was to the south, and so is the direction I mostly shot (as you’ll tell).

What I wanted to experiment in doing and shooting was threefold:

1.  Try the high end ISO settings on my camera.  Which are shown as H0.3, H0.7, H1.0, H2.0 … which I found correspond to an ISO setting of 8000, 9600, 12800, 25600, respectively
2.  Try shooting the night sky with all of my lenses, not just the 35mm and 85mm, that I have so far only shot with… but, also with my 135mm, and 300mm lenses
3.  Lastly, try and see if I can get the, heretofore, elusive shots of the Milky Way

With the 35mm lens on, I shot the usual 6400 ISO speed… well, that isn’t really usual, as I have also pretty much shot at 3200 ISO with the 35 mil on.

My very first attempt of shooting the night time starry sky, I ended up being blown away by the fact that I had captured a whole freakin’ other galaxy – the Andromeda Galaxy, which is what is also seen in the last photo there.  Another thing on the list for this morning, with trying the full arsenal of my lenses, was see how much more I could pick up that galaxy, the results of that follow below -

Really didn’t produce anything more spectacular, in my book.  I guess I was, in my usual fantasy land, idealistic mind and thinking, that perhaps the 300mil would really bring it up close and personal, since heck! – I can pick it up with a bloody 35mil!  Yeah, no… but, nice thought and try.

Second shot of the Milky Way there, that time done with my 85mil, and is also a panorama… I think maybe four? separate shots there making up that one.  One thing I found interesting, and that will be seen more so coming up, with the longer lenses used, which in turn leads to having to shoot at a shorter exposure time – all the exposure times are as follows: 35mm – 15 sec  …  85mm – 6 sec  …  135mm – 4 sec  …  300 – 2 sec  …  all done because of the rotation of our little planet, and in order to get more pinpoints of light stars, instead of star trails, the above times being the maximum amount of time with each focal length, and field of view of each, before star trails will start to happen… actually, they already do start at those times, but not too bad.

Anyway, the point I was bringing up, was the shorter exposure time, seemed to produce more color recording in the shots, and the longer lenses produced more saturated images of the sky.  Or, maybe, it also had something to do with the higher ISO setting, either by itself, or coupled with the slower exposure time, threw more color being able to be recorded, or throwing in false color… I don’t know… I just know that the higher end of focal length, and ISO speeds, there is more color in the images.

The ISO speeds I used are as follows:  35mm – 6400  …  85mm – H0.3 (8000)  …  135mm – H1.0 (12800)  …  300mm – H2.0 (25600)

Another 85mm panorama there (just two shots in this one, I think), showing Antares (the bright star just south of center there), in the Scorpio(n) constellation, and the southern fringe of the Milky Way along the left edge.

That tall, skinny one, was done with my 135mm on the front… panorama consisting of three or four images.  And as noted, colors a little more pronounced.  And that wraps up any worthwhile shots taken with the 135.

And on to the 300mil.  I am not sure where I was pointing the camera here… I am guessing to the north, or towards straight up in that direction.  Again though, the colors – what the heck?!

Oh well, disregard what I just said, as I must have been facing south, as that second one above, is of the same patch of sky, but showing the trees now below it, as it is a two shot panorama.  Then again, there were trees off to the north too, so could just as well be off in that direction… which it just might be, as there are no recognizable parts of the previously seen southern edge of the Milky Way, being seen in those two. (okay, comparing it to the 135mil image preceding them, it is the southern tip)

The Lagoon Nebula there, which is found in the constellation Sagittarius, and pretty much the center of our universe.  Of course, taken with my 300mil, to get that nice, close and personal look of it… well, outside of doing so with an actual telescope.

Second of the tall, skinny panoramas… that one done with the 300mil, which was the only one where Photoshop was unable to panorama’ize, and had to manually piece and stitch together myself.

Another observation of shooting with the longer lenses and/or the higher ISOs, there were significant fringe color vignetting along the edges of the frames, that seemed to be even more accentuated, when running the image through the lens profile in Lightroom.

Anyway, done with all the other lens experiments, and back to the 35mil for the rest of the early morning shooting, and looking to get some real shots.  Though, think on all of them, I forgot, or accidentally never got the ISO all the way back to 6400, but placed on H0.3, or ISO 8000 instead.

Anyway, that last one above was a nine image panorama.  That camper, I now know it was that, from seeing it in post, while I was there, I could just make out it’s lightness against the blackness of the trees, but not knowing what it really was… provides a nice sense of scale though.

I think it must be those H+ ISO settings on the camera that accentuates the colors, as I am back on the wide 35mil here, but still, more pronounced colors, that I never got as much shooting with the 35mil earlier.  Or, maybe it’s a matter of it being the deadest part of night, and the sky at it’s darkest, before the dawn, that it’s colors are just more able to be perceived… don’t know.

One thing I haven’t mentioned yet, is white balance, a very big and important factor in night time starry sky shooting.  I should have done what I had originally planned to do, and get a reading by shooting a exposure off of my white balance target that I always carry and shoot with, but for some reason, just never did, I really don’t know why.  So, had to end up getting a reading off of one of the two shots you see of my car below.  Though, also did get one off of that camper above too.  And those settings were applied to all of the images.

I was really wanting to get a horizon to horizon shot of the Milky Way, but yeah – was just not going to happen… too difficult to frame and line it up going all the way across the sky, as my only having as my widest lens my 35mil, it would have to be a panorama of somewhere I am guessing, between a dozen and a dozen and a half images, from one side, to straight up, to the other.  Again, the Milky Way is not as visible to the naked eye as seen here in the photos… you can clearly follow it’s path across the sky, but through the viewfinder, lining it all up at any recognizable breaking points, yeah, not going to happen… at least for me… and even if may of actually been able to do so, having Photoshop being able to decipher any corresponding parts to match up and stitch together would probably be fruitless.

Anyway, that last one is a three image pano looking straight up I believe.

Last tall, skinny pano… which is a good illustration as to how it would be difficult to do a horizon to horizon pano of the Milky Way, as it curves up and over head to the other side, even with the wide’ish 35mil, I would have to do a three wide (column) at each dozen to dozen and half row stops, to get a final pano that wasn’t too skinny in the final piecing together.  Doing those three dozen or so images, with a sky that is constantly changing position… yeah, wouldn’t work.

That last one, is actually the bottom image used in the panorama preceding it… just liked it by itself.

Since I had done entirely too many shots of just the *boring* night sky all by itself, aside from trees lining the bottom, as any good photo and composition needs, is some other element in with it… so, from seeing the above Andromeda image on the back of my camera after taking it, and seeing that there was some kind of fence post or something ahead of me, I ventured forth in the darkness, and discovered this that sat aside a cattle guard, so framed it up so that it was in the foreground of the Milky Way, to give the scene some context.

Had to do a separate white balance to the little flashlight I used to light paint the fence thing there… thankfully, the wooden braces were weather worn to a grey, so as to get a reading off of in post.  Though again, may have gotten the reading off my car below, that I illuminated also with the flashlight… don’t know, can’t remember, even though I just did it a few hours ago… I’m tired  :-)

I had thought of getting that last shot above, while I was on my way to where I just was shooting all the previous… but, had all that I wanted to do and shoot and get at, so passed it up.  But, obviously, stopped on my way back down the mountain to home, to get it.  I was amazed that behind me, the early twilight of dawn was already commencing, and lighting up the night sky!  Which, thinking upon it later, with it being less than a week away from the longest day of the year / shortest night of the year, guess it’s not that surprising.

I apparently can’t just simply walk back to my car without taking a photo of it!  :-)

So, well anyway… that wraps up the night time starry sky shooting, I was still in the middle of doing twenty-four hours ago from this moment.

What did I learn from my experimentation?  That I will not use the very high ISO of H2.0 (25600) as it produced to much color banding and other poor resolution not-so-pleasant remnants… but, may go up to and use H1.0 (12800) as that ISO was still not too bad and pretty reasonable and able to be cleaned up enough.

Probably will never shoot with my 300mm again… though may with the 135mm – may, shoot with it.  Otherwise, will stick with the 35 and 85 mils.

And again, just as I learned years ago with my photos of fireworks, that images of just fireworks, are blah and boring, but need something more and other incorporated within the image with them, to make them good.  Same, with future shots of the starry night sky, foreground is equally as important as the beautiful starry background, to give the whole scene context and visual oomph!  And, that my car doesn’t count

Okay, good night, am finally going to go to bed now.

I believe all three of these, the body of water seen in them is Lake Ladora, in the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.  The above first one, I am actually surprised the images all lined up (all three on here are panoramas), as I got swarmed by mosquitos while I stood there taking it… so, from having to lower the camera and wave and swat my hands and arms around me, and the lowering and raising of the camera to continue the images sequence…  Surprisingly, I ended up never getting bit at all… unless I got some freak time-release bite that took twenty-four hours to develop, as I was driving the six hour drive home to Buffalo the following night, a bite appeared on my cheekbone that began itching me.

click on the above photo to go see a larger full screen version

That last one is a combo HDR panorama.

It was funny, as I mentioned above, the mosquitos were out in full force, and after that first one above, I said to myself – okay that’s good enough, and don’t want to get ate alive and get West Nile or something, so let’s call it quits…  But then, would drive a little bit, and be taken by the sun setting and the water, and pull over and take another series of panoramas… and then say okay that’s it, only to pull over again just a short drive later to capture just one more  :-)

Thankfully again though, I surprisingly didn’t get ate alive, except for this out of nowhere one that showed up on my cheek the following evening!

All the photos I am posting on here today, were taken while I was in Denver this past week, on my last night spent there, at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.

Except for the first one, the last batch were taken with the ISO cranked all the way to 6400, as the sun had already dipped behind the mountains, and needed to have a fast shutter speed to shoot handheld the 300 mil I had on the front.  In my older age, I am really getting scarily pathetic in not being able to shoot steadily anymore… it really is unsettling almost.