Night sky, stars, storms, and bugs

This was one of those amazing sunsets that just goes on and on and on.

There is something beautiful about just watching amazing colors to start or end a day.

I know I once said that I didn't use tons of extra planning and preparing for taking photos. I was an off the cuff type of person.

However, just lately with the partial lunar eclipse a bit ago and then with the upcoming June 10th partial solar eclipse, I started to do some serious homework!

One bit of that homework was to learn how to use the camera I have to the best of its abilities. I have a decent lens for night work and I figured out how to get the stars in focus with both 'Focus Assist' and the Starry Sky feature on my M5.

I intended to go out to the pasture to do some practicing and I if nothing else 'shoot' some lightening bugs.

The photos above are a bit dark [duh, it is night!], but if you click on them I think you can see them larger and with a bit more detail.

I realized there was a storm cell off to the east and the lightening bugs were everywhere. So I decided to try something a bit wild. 

My first try was a mistake. I must have bumped the camera or tripod while it was shooting its LiveComp.

I wanted to show the mistake. Did I touch the camera? I don't recall, but the effect was certainly dizzing!

 So I decided to 'do' it over and I hoped that the storm would still do its magic.

The first one is a 15 minute star trail. It's okay, but dang soo much is going on!

So I tried another and then just shut it down after about 7 or 8 minutes and I liked it much better. Odd how two shots of nearly the same area just minutes from each other are differently colored. I think there was more lightening going on with this second shot.

So what was the whole point? 

I guess practice.

So that was the practice part. Scouting and planning for trying to photograph the partial solar eclipse was the next step.

So I leave you with a pretty photo I shot of a Swallow Tail I tried to chase in my flowers. It looks like the verbena is a huge attractor!

Night Experiment

A storm was brewing to the north of us last night ... I noticed it as I stopped at the mailbox and got ready to descend into our little valley.

I drove in and parked.
It was 1AM.
I was tired.

But the storm kept nagging at me.
I wonder
could I
would I
should I?

Well, hell yes ... no time like the present.
I put my camera on a tripod and left with a plan.

I parked on the edge of a hay field and watched the storm brighten the sky.
How to focus?
Dang, I had no clue.
So I did what anyone would do.
I winged it.
I used Landscape mode.
I used Manual mode.
I used an 8 second exposure, a few 15 second exposures, and a couple of 30 second exposure.
Tap, tap, tap...I like instant feedback and couldn't really see what I was doing...

I put the exposure on 'bulb' and held it down while I watched the flashes.

I looked at the time. 2AM!
Today I put it together in Photoshop and 'stacked' the layers.
Dang, I should Experiment more often!