Sometimes you make something, because you think it’ll be entertaining… and then you end up loving it.

Mid-way through the year last year I got invited to join the Tristar Adventures ambassador program, which has opened up some opportunities to meet and collaborate with new people such as Zachary McCollough, pictured here with me.  Zachary and I were meeting up one morning to take pictures of the Milky Way and I decided it would be a fun challenge to try to take a picture of the two of us (wearing our Tristar Adventure gear of course) with the sky.  Well, the more I played with the image, the more I ended up liking it – not to mention its one of the better skies I’ve captured to date – and so I thought I’d round out this night sky series with something a little different!

As best I can tell, I made my first “serious” attempt at photographing the Milky Way in 2013, after spending about 3 years creating star trail images.  I really had no idea what I was doing then, but I’ve spent the last ~8 years trying to sort that out in the pursuit of better and better night sky images.  I personally consider it to be the most challenging form of photography, and there is just something about that challenge the keeps me coming back for more.  Even in what I consider my best skies, I see opportunity for improvement, and I think that’s what keeps me interested.

Have a great week!

–Dan Thompson

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