During the last dark of the moon (too bad it wasn’t the 6th of June and we didn’t have a convoy…) I went down to Teter Rock with a friend for some night time photography. Teter Rock is an interesting place, I had been down there earlier in the spring for some photography (see the blog post). We were hoping to photograph the Milky Way and do some “light painting” on the rock. We had to scrap our original plans to hike back into the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve due to some pesky clouds, but farther south at Teter the skies were clear. I was a little disappointed at the amount of light pollution we encountered, but still, it was a great experience (even with setting my tripod up in a fresh cow patty).
I love being out under the stars. There is something refreshing about that, helps keep things in perspective. If you are out under some dark skies, point a camera up and see what you can record. You need a fast lens, high ISO, and a long shutter speed (the photo above was a 35 second exposure). A wide lens helps, the wider the lens, the longer you can exposure and not get streaking of the stars. “Painting with light” isn’t difficult, just get a flashlight and “paint” your subject during the exposure. It may take some trial and error to get the right amount of light, but it’s the middle of the night, what are else are you going to do? To see some really interesting shots of Teter Rock painted in that night, check out this photo from of my co-conspirator Adam on this trip.
