Over the last year or so I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting with different focal lengths when shooting the Milky Way. I personally enjoy how the tighter focal lengths add drama to the sky, but as I noted last week however, they can be challenging to fit everything in. Messing with these other focal lengths have been a nice distraction, and helpful for pushing through creative slumps as it turns into a challenge. For this week’s image, I’ve zoomed back out to a more traditional 24mm.
Over the winter, I came up with this particular idea, actually while I was working on capturing the winter Milky Way. I never could get that one to work though, so I tried the idea again earlier in the summer when the fireflies were out. The image above represents about an hour of lightning bug activity, which I thought was a fun addition to the night scene. Super observant viewers may have also caught that this is a self-portrait (I’m standing at the top of the back stairs there)! In any case, thanks for humoring a big of self reflection these past few weeks, and I hope you’ve enjoyed the night series. Next week, back to the light!
–Dan Thompson