Milky Way and Stars...

"The heavens declare the Glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork." -Psalms 19:1

Last night was a new moon, which means the moon is totally black, which means it is very dark outside.  This is a perfect time to take photos of the night sky.  Since night sky photography needs total darkness, it is better to be in the country...away from the city lights.   Our photography club decided to take advantage of the blackness to photograph the sky, and do a little bit of light painting.  To do light painting, there has to be some object to light paint.  One of our members suggested using the oil jack pumps east of town as our subject.  It was a fantastic suggestion.  Several had scouted the area before the night.  We were warned that a couple of snakes had been spotted, including a rattlesnake.  Thankfully, we did not see any snakes, but we encountered  tons of bugs.  Very annoying.  Especially when they go down the front of your blouse.  Bugs aside, I think it was well worth all the effort.

Getting set up...photo by Stephanie DeFranco

This photo was taken right after sunset.  I think it is amazing how much light the camera picks up.

The stars are starting to come out.

I have no idea what the line is above the pump jack.  It might be a meteor, an airplane, or bug.

Here the Milky Way is just starting to rise.  It is the white cloud like formation about half way up the horizon.  Many of our participants had not seen the Milky Way, nor did they know that it rises, and sets like the sun and moon.

A better view of the Milky Way.  To light paint, cameras are set at a high shutter speed (25-30 seconds).  During this time someone takes a flashlight, and paints light on the subject for about 1-5 seconds.  The subject is lit quite nicely...if it was not painted, it would be black.  Our painter, Gennean, was an excellent painter.  She should hire herself out for this.

This photo was painted a little longer.

The Milky Way really shows up in this photo...along with all our cars. (to the right of the jack pump)

My last photo of the night...

I was so glad there was a group of us that went out...otherwise, it would have been a little scary.
Be blessed.

December: Day 2...

"And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light." - Genesis 1:3

I Heart Faces had a tutorial on light painting (http://www.iheartfaces.com/2012/10/photography-introduction-to-light-painting/) that I wanted to try out.  In the tutorial, you need three people: the photographer, the subject, and the painter.  There was only Warren and me.  So he had to be the painter as well as the subject.  We had to take a lot of photos to get our light in a place that didn't cover his face, or go out of the frame, and looked like the object we wanted to draw.  

He started with a simple shape.  He practiced it over and over.  See all the concentric circles...

I don't know how he got the light in the middle, but it is cool.  

Then he decided to put himself inside the heart.  I wanted him to use the flashlight on his cell phone, but he was afraid it could get dropped, damaged, ruined, so we had to use our big honking flashlight.  He did not get the flashlight turned toward me the whole time, so we have a weak light on the right side.

I added red tulle to the end of the flashlight hoping to get a red light, but it made a two-toned light.  Kind of cool.

Then I wanted to see if I could draw, so he could pose.  I didn't know how it would work with the remote, but it was worth a try.

Hmmm.  I have to work on my shape.  And I can be seen drawing the supposed star.

This star is a lot better.  This was a fun project...for me.  Warren looks thrilled in all these photos.  

At this point, Warren was freezing.  Why would he wear short sleeves when it was 42 degrees outside?I don't know, it was what he had on and I suspect he thought this would only take a few minutes.  Can anyone ever take pictures in a few minutes?  He should know better, especially when it comes to me.  We went inside.  He was done!