Starry, starry night…

I’ve been away for a while and partly because I was traveling, on vacation, and creating images instead of sitting inside and editing them (a balance which far too often gets skewed toward the latter instead of the former). So after a madcap week of catching up on 9-5 duties, I have a little time to leisurely look back and play with some of my latest efforts. We took a family vacation to the beach–to the pristine beaches at South Walton–and I spent the normal amount of time just drinking in the coastal landscape and taking fun memory shots of my family. It’s always a battery re-charging experience down there, to be sure.

But I also try each year to challenge myself to a fresh assignment. One year I captured lightening over the Gulf; another year we had a magnificent orange moon that was too good to be true. This year, we were there during the New Moon phase, so no orbs in the night sky, but instead, on a couple of clear nights, I attempted something I had only flirted with before: capturing the feeling of those millions of stars overhead, and the mysterious moody shore at night.

Equipped with my 17-55 mm and tripod, I set up and experimented for about 30 mins before I settled on exposures that were a range of 15-20 seconds. Any longer, and the sky became overexposed and create extra noise, plus the stars begin to trail ever so slightly. Any less, and those beautiful twinklers became pinpricks, too tiny to discern.

One of my best results is posted today. I really love the way the waves lushly roll over in the long exposure, with just enough light from Panama City, some 20 miles away, to offer a glow on the horizon. While nothing can truly compare to standing on the shore at night, drinking in the sound of the waves, the salty sea breeze, and the overpowering vastness of the cosmos above, I know this shot for me helps to bring it home in my memory, once again. Hope you enjoy…