Astrophotography at Stanley Lake
What an amazing place
There was a third quarter moon when I shot these at Stanley Lake, and it was my third time attempting to do some astrophotography. I learned a lot of new things this time around, including that the moon actually makes for an amazing addition to astrophotography. I often hear about people trying to avoid it, but the last two times I've shot with it out in the sky, it made for some really unique images. The other takeaway was that the Milky Way and stars actually move very quickly, and non-linearly over the course of the night. This makes for some amazing tracking shots.
Setting and gear helps to create amazing pictures but...
Technique really makes a difference. Overall, I’m happy with these shots, but I’m excited to experiment more with settings in the future. These were taken with the aperture wide open at f/2.8, ISO around 1600, and a shutter speed between 15–30 seconds. Next time, I want to test a wider range of settings and combinations to see what works best with my gear and the lighting conditions. General advice is a good starting point, but it’s never perfect.
