Photographing the Milky Way

With each new moon the dark sky provides a great chance at seeing the milky way...if the skies are clear.  On one such cold morning I drove up Caeser's Head to photograph the Milky Way over Greenville South Carolina.  Even with the light pollution from the city of Greenville the Milky Way was somewhat visible in the sky.  However camera sensors are capable of seeing even more of the light from the billions of stars than I could see by eye.  I used a fast Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens set wide open at f/1.4 and an exposure time of 15 to 20 seconds to maximize the amount of light to the camera sensor to make these photos possible.

During another new moon I was in the Catskill Mountains in New York staying at the relaxing Mountain Brook Lodge in Tannersville.  The owner recommended this great view of the mountains which was perfect for capturing a panorama of the Milky Way over Tannersville and Haines Falls.

Abandoned Vehicles at Night

While out running around some nearby soccer fields I noticed a few newly tied red ribbons marking a path leading into the woods.  I love trail running and took off to explore but was surprised to quickly find several abandoned vehicles at the end of the trail.  A large flatbed truck, jeep, trailer, and a tractor had long been abandoned for the forest to capture.  The wild trees had grown around (and in some cases through!) the vehicles making it near impossible to photograph them without a distracting background.  Therefore I decided to come back at night and use flashlights to "paint" the vehicles to make these moody images of the old junkers.

Water Work

A very rainy week brought to mind a class I took through Improve Photography which included a lesson on photographing water drops.  I enjoyed the lesson as it taught me a lot about macro shooting, flash, and bouncing light.  As I was stuck inside because of the rain I thought it appropriate to try it again along with reflections of other abstract objects.

It was a timely setup as soon after I was given a sample of a new coating from BASF that is designed to resist water droplet erosion when used on giant wind turbines.  It was a great way to use the water drops to tell a story about the coating for BASF.

While it was still raining I came up with the idea to take some photographs inside the Stumphouse Tunnel in Walhalla South Carolina where I would be protected from the rain.  The tunnel was originally started as a pre-Civil War railway tunnel before Clemson purchased it in 1951 to produce the state's first blue cheese but now it is part of a nice park which includes the Issaqueena Falls.  It was quite creepy being the only person there on a dreary Tuesday morning but I was quickly too engrossed in taking photos to think about things sneaking up behind me in the dark...

I was happy I had just put in the water drop work before visiting the tunnel.  Between the rain outside and condensation in the tunnel there were several slow drips from the ceiling that were contributing to the eerie atmosphere.  I knew that I had to try and capture one of those large drops hitting the pools of water along the side of the tunnel before I left.