I literally stumbled into the Astrophotography by accident, and WOW… talk about being in the right place at the absolute perfect time. Plus, it turns out that I absolutely love this Landscape Astrophotography. So much so that I’m driving across the country this summer to capture nighttime images in one of my favorite places… Big Bend National Park…. Stay tuned.
A little back story… I studied camera brands and models for two years before I pulled the trigger on this landscape photography business. I mean deep, deep dive. I’m talking hundreds of hours of reading forums and reviews. Talking with friends that were in the Canon camp and the Sony camp. (Both super fantastic brands).
My goal was to have the lightest kit possible, for backpacking, kayaking, mountain biking and Four Wheeling in the Overland Vehicle into these wilderness areas. That meant (to me) one camera and one lens. The 60MP Full Frame Sony a7Riv paired with the Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 G Master lens. Time will tell if I’ve made the right choice. At eight months in… so far so good. The camera, in a dry bag with a pretty decent carbon fiber tripod weighs right at 17.5 pounds.
In all of this research I had read that other photographers were loving this camera / lens combo for astrophotography. I “kind of” knew what astrophotography was. However, I had no clue what landscape astrophotography was, let alone how blown away I would be about capturing some earthly foreground with the Milky Way shooting straight up into the night sky!
Back to the point… During the Summer of 2024, my wife and I spent three weeks in Bar Harbor Maine. THIS was the trip to launch my photography business. This was also the first time I actually used this powerhouse of a camera / lens setup. I captured amazing landscapes in this beautiful country and around Acadia National Park.
Towards the end of our trip, we ran into another mountain biker along the famous Rockefeller Carriage Roads. He asked if we had been further up the coast of Maine to a little town on the Canadian border called Lubec. We had never heard of it, but from his description, it sounded right up our alley (or coast as it turns out)… and what a coast it was. In fact, they call it the Bold Coast. Pristine, rugged, sparsely populated, with minimal tourists.
We checked into our Inn once we arrived in downtown Lubec, which appears to be co-owned by another photographer Glenn Charles (we highly recommend Cohill’s Inn BTW). Turns out that Glenn is the bartender as well. So, my wife and I sit down to have a drink and we start chatting with Glenn. Glenn gives us some great tips on Kayaking and a put-in that was in more tame waters. Heed the warnings, and play it safe… the tides swing 18 to 21 feet here! Crazy scary currents when they are moving.
After 30 minutes or so this other guy comes into the bar. Obviously Glenn and this fella are friends. And he shows Glenn an astrophotography shot he got the night before. So I pipe up and say. “I think my lens is suppose to be good for astrophotography…. but I have no clue what I’m doing.” Glenn says, well this is the man that would know. Turns out this fella is Adam Woodworth. A local and a famous astrophotographer. Adam says. “You can read all about it in my book.” By the next day, I had this signed copy in my possession.
Adam said. “You know you are in one of the best places on the planet to capture the milky way, right.” Turns out Lubec, being 500 miles East of New York city, looks South, straight down the Atlantic at zero to minimal light pollution. The Milky Way is always in the south and Summer is the best time to see it in full view. Lucky Me!
I read his book and the next night I drove to the coast and got this shot. Got super lucky. Clear skies and no moon. Actually you take 20 shots. All at 10 second long exposures. Then you compress them all together in a program called Sequator (free open source Astrophotographer stuff). The merging of all 20 images takes all the noise, star trails and satellite / airplane trails out. Making a pitch black background with sharp, pinpoint stars. Then blend that image, using layers in Photoshope, with the foreground image at 30 (or more) seconds. Of course both image sets have to be taken form a tripod from the exact same position. I have not even run these through Sequator yet. This is right out of the camera. Stay Tuned – I’m into to it!
