Tony Grove

I spent the last day exploring Tony Grove in Utah with my parents. This place is full of opportunity, and I'm going to have to go back again soon! We hiked up the White Pine Lake trail about 2,000 feet to a giant meadow full of wildflowers for most of these pictures. Originally, I was going to scout out locations during the day and hike up White Pine Lake trail for fun. Then I was going to come back the next night to do some shooting. But then it turned out the day of my hike was the only clear night projected for the rest of the week. So I went on an 8 mile hike, came home for a few hours (during which I couldn't force myself to take a nap), and then went back at night for several hours of shooting. On the drive home, I counted 6 deer on the side of the road. But anyway, here are the fruits of my labor:

I tried out everything that I learned from the Brad Goldpaint workshop I went to in April. First I got some standard Milky Way/light painted shots.


Next I attempted another panorama, which seems to be a weakness of mine. I need to fix this one some more--I had to skew the bottom edges down and the Milky Way...well, if I don't tell, maybe no one will notice.


Next I finally tackled a star trail picture! I didn't get to practice this one at the workshop, because my intervalometer wasn't compatible with the camera I'd rented. Star trail pictures are time consuming--basically you have to take a sequence of 30-second exposures (about a half hour's worth) Unfortunately, two things went wrong during this process. First, about 17 minutes in, an idiot with a headlamp wandered onto the scene. A drunk, biking idiot. My Dad doesn't think a drunk person could navigate a rocky mountain trail on a bike in the dark. But he was slurring and talking to himself and weaving, so I stand by my theory. His headlamp was featured in about 5 shots, but only the landscape portion, which I didn't need. The 2nd thing that went wrong was the camera battery died about 25-ish minutes in and I didn't know about it because I was elsewhere in a camp chair passing time with my parents. Despite all that madness, I love my first star trail picture! (a composite of 45 images instead of 60)


And last of all: Composites. The sky portion was a 30-second exposure, and the landscape portion is a 2:30-minute exposure. The sky is a bit lighter in these pictures because the moon (4 days past full) was just starting to rise. Of course, it wasn't high enough to show ME what I was pointing my camera at. These are literally shots in the dark. Educated guesses. Tony Grove Lake is nestled in the center of the shots, kind of in a valley.


And that's all I've gotten done this summer. In a month, I'll be back to work and it's going to be hard to go out shooting. I'm hoping to go out at least two more times before the REAL madness begins!