Starlight...star bright...
This was shot with my Canon 5DS and my Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM lens. It was shot at an ISO of 3200 and a focal length of 16mm. The aperture was f/2.8 and the shutter was 15 seconds.
This was shot with my Canon 5DS and my Canon 216-35mm f/2.8L II USM lens. It was shot at an ISO of 3200 and a focal length of 18mm. The aperture was f/2.8 and the shutter was 20 seconds.
Get outta town!
The heavens contain amazing subjects that can only be seen away from the lights and comfort of home and a city. The stars can be captured in ways we can never see with our eyes...but only away from the glare of civilization.
The two shots above were shot in the Cherokee National Forest. The first was shot at Mac Point in on Parksville Lake. As happens occasionally, it was a wonderful double subject capture. A streaking falling star upstaged the Milky Way as it plummeted earthward.
In the second, cloud to cloud lightning provided an accompaniment to the Milky Way from the Cherohala Skyway, for another wonderful double capture.
The bottom line for both of these...you gotta get outta town! You cannot see these things unless you go where it is dark. You should check out www.darksitefinder.com as a reference to find dark skies. We don't have any truly dark skies anywhere close around, but the nearby skies in the forest can be dark enough to catch plenty of stars.
The Milky Way is visible to the naked eye, although we cannot perceive the colors it contains. But just seeing it stretch across the sky and knowing that literally billions of stars make it up...is awe inspiring. Take your camera and a tripod, find the Milky Way in the southern sky and focus your camera on a bright star. Have your ISO set high and put your camera on its manual setting. Set the timer for a long exposure and the aperture wide open. The take the shot...come home...and marvel at the artistry and creativity in the hand of God.