Coastal Sky

The Milky Way will always be one of my favorite subjects. Spending time in the dark, playing with light, taking a moment to contemplate your place in the universe. My problem in the mountains is finding a place dark enough to properly capture it, and get colors out of it. I had been wanting to head to the coast and try it out on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I couldn’t get to the island I wanted to get it from… but after I argued that I didn’t want to go up here, I was convinced to go to the top of 4x4 Road on the beach, after dark. I was shocked to find, that despite being surrounded by lit beach houses, it was more than dark enough to create this exposure. It was an excellent time, I had a blast creating this. As an additional note… I would like to apologies to everyone I ever made fun of because they were swarmed by midges…. I understand now, and I am so sorry.

This exposure was created in several stages. First I had my friend light pain the area with a video light I had in my bag for a single exposure. Then I had him flip the lights in the cab on for a few seconds in the next exposure. Finally I took eight additional exposures of the night sky. Once I got home, first I edited the sky, set my color temperature, and finessed the colors I wanted out of it. Then I worked o the foreground in different exposure masks. Stacked all the milky way photos together in Sequater, finally I took the light painting and cab exposures and painted them into the dark foreground of the other photos.

I had no idea of this would actually work, but i was hopeful. Experimentation is a fun part of photography I really enjoy! You should absolutely take your time playing with different options as you try to create your own milky way shots! I love the challenge, the thrill of getting it right, or finding out where you can improve on your next time out. Experiment and play, the journey is half the fun!

Aperture: f3.2
ISO: 3200
SS: 8 44 second exposures
Focal: 8mm

Fujinon 8-16mm