My family and I love to vacation in Colorado. As many of you are aware it is HOT in Texas in August and September, so this vacation was more of a break from the heat and mosquitoes (yes they have them in CO, just a lot less, and they are slow). Anyhow, my wife is an astronomy enthusiast, and we always enjoy the clear beautiful view if the milky way. I tried my hand at photographing it a bit. This first image is of the cabin in the foreground and that cool circular effect you get when pointing the camera at the North Star. I try and take some shots of the cabin when we are there, because the cabin has a web site and needs photos, etc…

The second is a image created with trees in the foreground. I think the celestial shots with elements that ground us back on earth in the foreground, are really interesting. For me, it helps place the viewer in the space of the photograph.

The third image is a shot for just 30 seconds (rather than 15 or 30 minutes), straight at the zenith. The milky way is so intense out there at night. There is a learning curve that I think I will enjoy progressing on the next time I am out there.

This last image was shot in the opposite direction of the North Star. The streaking effect is the result. The room for experimentation is fun. I think I would have tried much more while at the cabin, but I caught a bit of a cold and decided it was best to not spend too much time outside at night.

Changing out a lens at 60’ gave me the “Elvis legs” ( a term I use when rock climbing and I get nervous). I did not think I was going to fall, just scared that I would drop a lens that costs a couple of clams.

The sky was very overcast. This did not show up too much in the night images, but I really had to get creative to bring out the color and a blue sky. The overcast skies grayed out most everything and made the downtown skyline look washed out. I think when I took this shot we we’re at the top and the skies looked OK for a second, so I got at it. The view shows the correct perspective that a condo owner will see from the top floor of the, soon to be, Don Mar condos.

After completing the day shots and all the views from different balconies throughout the condos, I suggested that we take the crane out over the Congress Ave.

After centering on Congress, I got some really fantastic views of downtown Austin. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this perspective before. This image is a stitched panoramic view that is huge.

One challenge was that the crane was very shaky. It was constantly moving and this made it hard to shoot longer exposure images. Not only was the longer exposure needed to create the cool light streaks on the road, but also it was needed to give me the depth of field necessary to have both the closer street views and the Capitol in focus. While shooting with a fast shutter speed to compensate for the crane’s shakiness, I would have to use a large aperture. This does not allow for the desired depth of field. Finding the balance between the two was very challenging. Overcoming these challenges make the job that much more interesting and fun.