Last year, I took part in an astrophotography workshop.  I met retired Marine Colonel Don Riddle and learned about taking Milky Way photos in a single frame.  Well, guess what?  Another chance came up for me.  Thanks to this time of year, I can still shoot the Milky Way, but it’s rising much later in the evening.  Also, I found another workshop by Don which I could attend.  So, here’s how that event went.

This time, Don found a way to add his astrophotography class to Bryce Canyon National Park’s Astronomy Week.  I think it was a great addition.  Astronomy can include astrophotography as well.  Since this opportunity came up, I made a point of signing up for a refresher course.

The instruction part was good for me to remember what I needed to know.  Also, there were new points which he didn’t cover back during my last course.  Perhaps he learned more about available resources.  Anyways, the additional information was good.  I ended up using a piece of software which he mentioned.  I heard about it before but forgot the name.  Now, it’s on my computer and I used it for this shoot.

This time, Mike Kelzenberg joined as co-instructor.  Mike does much more light painting in his photography.  It was interesting to have a different perspective and discussion points of a different kind, but still relevant kind, of photography in the dark.

Once the instruction was over, it was time for the workshop.  We went out to the canyon rim and set up for shooting.  The Milky Way was already rising in the east.  So, we all got to work.  Here’s a couple of the photos I shot.  I include the color and the monochrome versions.

This time, I decided I would look into stacking my Milky Way photos.  This would help with high ISO noise.  Having an older camera model, this becomes very important for me.  So, I took multiple exposures at different ISO’s so that I could deal with both details and noise.

While out there, the instructors put out a line of red lights to help make sure no participants fell off the edge of the cliff.  After all, it’s dark.  Perhaps you couldn’t see where the edge was.  Well, those red lights gave me an interesting idea.

Remember I mentioned that 1 instructor did light painting?  There was a red light positioned at the base of a pine tree.  It lit that tree up.  I took note of this.  At first, the red tree was annoying.  It’s not a natural look.  I wanted as natural a look as I could get.  However, I started thinking differently as the late evening passed.  I started thinking about how this light was light painting the tree.

So, I took a moment and swung my camera around to shoot the red tree.  It would either work or it would not.  With digital photography, it’s no real loss to experiment.  So, I gave my idea a try.  This is what I walked away with.

I took pains to make sure you could see the stars behind the red light painted tree.  I felt that was important to the overall composition.  Mike came to check on me and my progress during this vision.  He was impressed with the idea.  It does fall under the heading of light painting.

In conclusion, this was another enjoyable astrophotography workshop with the Milky Way rising.  I hope to attend future classes and workshops in different locations as Milky Way season progresses.  Thank you to both Don and Mike.