Night Photography, Big Bend National Park, Texas

If you want to take pictures of the stars, the Milky Way in particular, you will be better off if you find a location with dark skies. In Sonoma County there are no night skies that are truly dark. It may look dark, but when shooting the Milky Way to the south, with a long exposure, the lights from the city will show at the horizon. And, you will likely have airplane trails in most of your frames. One place with truly dark skies is Big Bend National Park in Texas. And not airplanes! I have been there a few times with Andy Cook of Rocky Mountain Reflections (great workshops by the way). This first image is of the old movie set located west of Lajitas along highway 170.

This view was taken not only a few yards away. It was totally dark and I could not see the river with my naked eye, but the person I was with reassured me it was there. The camera can see so much more than the naked eye.

This picture was also taken in Big Bend National Park. We walked into Santa Elena Canyon in the dark, found a safe ledge and got this image overlooking the Rio Grand River as it emerges from the canyon.

After photographing at Big Bend I like to stop over near McDonald Observatory. The skies here, like at big bend, are dark. If you time your visit right you may be treated to a star party sponsored by the observatory. On this occasion I was fortunate to be able to attend one. During the narrative the presenter asked if there was anyone in the audience 40 years old. A lady raised her had and then the presenter pointed out a star whose light we were looking at on this night left the year she was born. When I got home I looked up a star that left on my day of birth.

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White Tailed Kites - A Family Affair

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The East Side of the Sierras is Beautiful

Why “Notes to My Mother”? My mother was the one person in my life who was always interested in what I was doing, what I had to say, who I was. She was never too busy to listen and take an interest. Never critical, always accepting. Even when I was wrong or misguided, there would still be a gentle interested listener present. Though she has been gone over 6 years, I still get the urge to write or call her, to share an image I am proud of or share my latest adventure to some beautiful place. I know she would love to hear about it. My mother was an artist. She painted most of her life, right up to her passing at the age of 96. When I was 4 years old we lived on the east side of the Sierra Nevada Range. She would take me out to paint with her - she with her easel, me with mine - and we would sit together creating our art. While I gave up on the medium she kept at it. Then, in the year she passed I picked up a digital camera and began my adventure into the world of landscape ph...

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Notes To My Mother

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