Finding True North

This was not only my first ever star trail shot of the North Star, but it was the first photo I ever had published

Trying new things is literally like taking photos in the dark.

In order to take good night photos, you have to know where the stars will be when they aren’t in the sky. Yes, I’m aware that we have technology specifically designed to show us where and when the stars will appear, I use it often, but it isn’t always exactly accurate and in these cases you sometimes need it to be. Planning your shot during the day is less taxing than trying to figure it out in the dark. It also gives you the chance to shoot your foreground at blue hour, which provides a less harsh lighting of your subjects than artificial light like in this photo.

It’s a lot of things to keep in mind, and it all sounds simple enough until your fingers are freezing and the wind is beating down on you and the stars don’t align in your shot the way you thought they would and you’re losing Golden Hour and the sky is moving and you just have to do it even though you aren’t sure what you’re doing.

I wandered around, repositioning myself over and over, and never being fully satisfied with how the shot looked (and often not even being sure what I was looking at.) So I set what I could and let the camera run for three hours, hoping it worked. It wasn’t until the next day when I was able to put it all together that I saw what I did.

It isn’t my best work, but it was enough to convince me that I was going the right direction. I actually love this more than the Milky Way. It reminds me what my true North is.