Night out

Nah, not that kind of Night Out.

Instead I sat on the porch for a while after dark to watch the sky. I figured the clouds would obscure the stars and the Milky Way so I was content to sit for a bit in the warm night air and rock on the porch.

Charlie thought he'd go in after he listened to the Barred Owls hooting. 

I thought I'd spend a little time playing with light painting. I wanted to highlight the night sky and the trees in the woods to our west of the house.

My experiment with light painting with my headlamp. 

Then I walked to the driveway to look where the Milky Way should be appearing and took a 15 & 25 second shot.

I did this partially 'blind' in a way because with the naked eye and the clouds, I wasn't exactly sure of what I was getting. [I learned a little bit later to use the 'Boost' feature in the Bulb/LiveView Modes to sort of see what I was shooting at.]

I may have gotten some meteors? The upper arrow points to two downwards streaks.
The lower arrow points to where the Milky Way should be.

Then the clouds moved on!

and...then,

there it was! 

Looks like a meteor particle was zooming through also.

Bonus!

It is hard to see those little streaks of light, however if you click on the photo you should be able to see one little streak in the upper right quadrant of the shot.

I hadn't intended on looking for the Perseids, but perhaps I did find them!

They are supposed to be starting and getting stronger until mid August.

I think this may have been my first time 'catching' a meteor!

Once the clouds moved on, I took several shots of the MW and even tried one of those fun shots where I look up with a head lamp on. The shots really didn't turn out well. But here is one. 

I am standing in our driveway not far from the house looking up towards the ridge. My Subaru even glows in the headlamp glow.

There are so many things to learn about I night photos and adding light. The headlamp actually has a nicer beam to it when the humidity in the air is higher. LED lights turn up bluish.

I wonder if I had some glow sticks twirled them around? Wouldn't that be sort of fun and crazy? 

I am practicing at home so one day in the few weeks, I can try this near the ponds at KVR, or the old dam.

These night shots are not easy. Fortunately I have a feature called Starry AutoFocus which helps quite a bit. I use a 12mm lens. For my camera the ISO is at 1600 and I often use a feature called LiveView to find where I will shoot as the camera 'boosts' what you can see through it. 

I still can't quite get the hang of the right colors for the night sky. 

Clouds are orangish from the light in the towns or farms in the distance.

I like my star skies to be more bluish and cool toned.

The photos are generally pretty noisy, but as technology improves as well as a good Denoise app, it doesn't look so bad.

For this shot of the house, I pointed the camera northwest and gave it an 8 minute LiveComp. This feature takes an initial shot and then the camera adds any light as it changes for the next 8 minutes. 

That is Olympus's work around to standard star photos which have the photographer taken 100's of shots of the stars and then put them through another program which 'stacks' them together. 

I like this feature for so many things.

I tried several times to combine star trails with a bit of light painting to show the house and trees. Most of them were just bad... and a failure, but I think I did get one decent effort.

The middle pine tree is dead and reflected the bluish color of the LED headlamp.

Still, it was fun and I learned a bit more. 

I'd like to try this at one of the covered bridges at KVR.

That is a goal I'd like to complete this summer.

One last Milky Way shot in a 

cooler tone.

I like this one best as it makes me think of galaxies and star travel. 

There certainly is something to be said for watching the stars at night. I eventually went inside reluctantly because I knew I needed sleep.

It was a great night out!

Enjoy the Perseids if you can find a dark sky. The full moon this year will blot out the peak time for the meteor showers. 

I used:

Olympus E-M1 Mark III

12mm lens 
f 2.0

ISO 1600
Different exposures for different shots.

Tripod

15, The Wonder Horse.

Well. The pressure is off. The equine are sorted out and a huge hay bill no longer looms on our horizon.

However that is not the point of this blog.

 I called the mule gang out for a brushing session.

 After brushing, they wander off...except...

Siera who decided to heel me and ask for more attention. 

Lil' Richard cleans up the rough spots

Rich felt pretty down when the others were loaded up and left. I felt a pretty huge sense of loss and change. However, it was necessary.

Pedro went with a team penning gent who fell in love with his color and attitude. Pedro, Willy, and LeRoy are headed off to school. They will have jobs to do also.

I went to the paddock where I am keeping 15 right now for easy access. She goes inside when it the sun is hot in her paddock and comes out for most of the day.

After supper was cleaned up I told Rich that I was going to brush 'his' horse and apply some bug spray to her legs. I would also like to pick out her feet and practice with her a bit more. 

With all the changes in the past three days, I thought a distraction would be nice.

Rich came with the spray. He'd been complaining that it was too hot or too buggy, or too...something and had been ready to go in for the evening. Afternoons are very hard on him. He says that his brain tends to 'misfire' late in the day. And it does. Late afternoons and evenings are tough.

Once he got into the paddock with 15, she perked up and her eyes and ears followed him. He talked to her and told her with mixed up words what he was going to do.

She listened to his voice and relaxed as he sprayed her with fly spray. And she didn't move a muscle.

I took the halter and lead rope off from her and handed them to Rich. 

I turned to leave her pen.

Rich didn't leave. 

He began to run his hands all over her and talk to her. I think she loves his tone of voice. She doesn't mind it if his words are mixed up, she doesn't care if he forgets part of a sentence or stops mid sentence because the words won't come. 

She stood like a statue while he walked around her and talked quietly. He then put his arm around her and leaned into her. She didn't move.

Then he put most of his body weight into her side. She simply sighed and licked her lips.

This from a man who has never had a particular fondness for horses. 

He has always liked them, and treated them well. But mules were his 'thing'. 

15 makes him smile. I think she makes him feel whole.

Who knows?

And does it really matter? 

All that matters is that she is the little Wonder Horse.