Night

Photo: A starry sky on a perfectly clear night above Black Rock in West Maui.

Another reminiscing photo from my first ever attempt of shooting the skies back in ‘07. Call it beginner’s luck, or having the perfect canvas to work with.

We’ll be heading back up north to Wisconsin later this week, and I’m starting to think of some of the shots I want to work on this trip.  We have seen some great night skies that far north in previous visits, and especially in the winter if the skies are completely clear.  Sure, there’s about a 60-70 °F difference between this image and anything I see this weekend, but layers just aren’t for Photoshop, you know.

Into the Night

Maybe not as favorable for stargazing, we’ll be staying right near downtown of the biggest city in Door County, WI (that’s Sturgeon Bay for anyone playing along at home).  Still, I’ve been getting more socially active on Flickr lately and some of the night shots I’m seeing in the Night Images group pool have me itching to stay up late and shoot.

I mentioned that a little bit back in September when I said the night was my new golden hour, so it won’t be too far out of my norm.  Plus, we’ll be staying right on the bay, walking distance from where I attempted this shot in Sept. ‘08.

As I like to think that both my field skills and my talents in the digital darkroom are now much improved since this shot, I get excited about the new possibilities this trip.

And, seeing as it’s the middle of January, I don’t think I’ll be worried about getting washed out this time, either.

Back to the Stars

Getting back to the original photo, if you’d like to see more of my night shots of the heavens, click through to my Astrophotography Portfolio. The one of me and the Milky Way is starting a little bit of chatter on Flickr, at least compared to my other images in the past.

Photo: The near empty deck aboard our cruise ship out at sea, back in February ‘07.

Another one from the archives on the same cruise I brought us back to Miami for the sunrise. It was almost hard to imagine that was had become a peaceful place for a late night stroll out on the open water was previously crammed with kids and families one on top of the other mere hours before.

Seeing as this picture image is coming up on it’s 3rd birthday, it obviously wasn’t an HDR capture. While I did touch it up with Topaz Adjust a little, it would have been great to shoot a scene like this as an HDR image. Seeing as this maiden voyage of our was a company sponsored trip, and we haven’t been aboard a cruise ship since, I can’t say I’ll get around to framing a similar shot ever again, but never say never.

Hidden Gnome?!?

That red cone in the background sure is a focal point, ain’t it? Yet, I can’t help but visualize a hidden resemblance to the Travelocity Gnome in this image.  Do you see it, too?

Work with me here, or at least verify I’m not going crazy at this computer all day.  The red cone in the background is his hat (duh), and the tent at the top of the waterslide is his beard. The blue slide itself is a sorta like his jacket, and let’s just say the aqua pool at the bottom are his slacks. Now you see it, right?

Anyway, feel free to leave your vote as to whether I’m overtired and imagining things, or if you see something, too.  Oh, and you can always comment about the image, too.

– Kris

Photo: The Milky Way in the western sky above Black Rock outside the Sheraton Maui Resort in Ka’anapali.

This is the very photo that enticed me into astrophotography in the first place, and was an instant favorite. Possibly a once-in-a-lifetime shot given what little I knew about shooting the night sky 2 1/2 years, but after about a dozen shoots under the starry heavens, this image is still one of my best works.

We have yet to make it to the Big Island of Hawaii to see the lava flows in the volcano, but when we were walking around Buckingham Fountain in Downtown Chicago this summer, I watched as the sprays of water changed colors with the lights and thought this one had a familiar glow to it.

Not my best shot of the night sky by any means, but it was pretty fun capturing one of the most recognizable set of stars in the sky with a decent foreground composition.

This was from Door County last year, and while not as impressive as seeing the stars out in the Pacific Ocean over Maui, it was still a lot better than what we normally see living 10 minutes from Chicago. It was from September of last year, the only real chance I’ve gotten to shoot the night sky in Door County so far.

Of our other trips to date, it was ridiculously cold last December to be out, and for our April trip, there just wasn’t really a good spot where we were at. Plus, it was the Stanley Cup playoffs and the Hawks were beating up on Calgary, so I couldn’t miss that.

Not sure about going out to shoot this next trip, but we’ll see.

If you want to see more of these, check out the two photosets on Flickr below, and a little bit more of how this all got started.

• Stars Over Door County photoset on Flickr
• Stars Over Maui photoset on Flickr