Hardware Ranch

So after that Arches Workshop, I've been super excited to go out into the night again! I got a new camera and happened to be visiting my parents, where there happens to be a lot of dark sky nearby. So these shots were taken at Hardware Ranch, in Northern Utah. Most of the light painting is courtesy of my Dad. :)


This one is a panorama. It looks a little deformed because I didn't actually take enough pictures to cover everything--the end result fresh out of Photomerge was kind of bell shaped and I used the transform tool to drag the corners down a little. Either way, I'm still pretty happy with it.


I think I did the light painting on this one, before my Dad offered to help. When we went out there, I mostly wanted a chance to see how my new camera and lens performed on the night sky. I didn't plan anything at all, but it turned out that there were some nice trees and fences and stuff for foreground light painting.


The left image was taken around 11:45 pm or 12, and Milky Way core hadn't quite cleared the hillside yet. The image on the right was taken closer to 1 am.

When we got home (2am-ish), I noticed the constellation Scorpius at the end of the driveway--that's the constellation that kind of points to the brightest part of the Milky Way. So then I was curious to see if my camera could still pick out the Milky Way, even in the light polluted neighborhood. As it turns out, it could!



In fact, while I was taking the shot, I could vaguely see the Milky Way myself. Maybe because my eyes were used to the dark, or because I knew what to look for. It was cool. :)

All images taken with Canon EOS 6D, Rockinon 14mm F/2.8 lens. Settings: 30 seconds, ISO 4000, F/2.8