Those who know me, know I am not much of a night person….unless there is a band involved;)! But I’ve been wanting to try capturing this image for some time now. We had some crisp clear nights this past week, so I ended up spending one evening at a family friends property and 200 year old barn in Bartlett, photographing the Milky Way. If you are far away from any erroneous light, and once your eyes adjust, it’s truly amazing how many stars are visible on a clear night.

Walking through the field to the barn in the dark, the silence was only broken by a solitary owl in the distance. I used Star Walk 2, to align myself with the barn to include the Milky Way, set up my tripod and composed my image. I took a few test shots to dial in my exposure for the stars, and then did some light painting with my flashlight to illuminate the barn and grass. Shooting in the dark presents it’s own challenges, like trying to focus on a small screen, using live view. Or things like using the best shutter speed and ISO combo to freeze the stars, but also keeping noise low. There are a few things I would do different next time, but not bad for my first real effort. It also captured Jupiter, the bright light to the right, and a few shooting stars, with two of them forming a cross in the upper left.