Astrophotography

For our anniversary this year, Jane purchased an astrophotography class for me. It was two nights on Whidbey Island with an instructor and a small group of students from the Photographic Center Northwest. I’ve tried astrophotography in the past and I was excited for another attempt and to learn how to get pictures that show they sky in a dramatic way.

The dates for the shoot were in August. Now August is normally the time of year in the northwest you can count on for good weather. The night also coincided with a new-moon so the night would be as dark as you could expect given our proximity to Seattle. As it would happen those two nights were the both rainy and cloudy. The first in almost 60 days. Daniel our instructor was prepared for plan A, B, C. So we did some light painting and other activities. The lighthouse above is from Fort Casey, our location for our first night of shooting.

During daylight hours the next day, a few of us met at a recycling center on the Island. It was absolutely pouring the rain! Thankfully Jane had suggested I take our golf umbrella with me “just in case”.

Our final night we met at Ebey’s Landing. A beautiful sunset, but a night sky was not to be had.

Although the sky didn’t make an appearance those nights, the conversations over coffee among a few of us as we attempted to get warm and dry was worth the price of the class. The discussions around what moves us as artists were the most impactful to me. I have a lot to learn and look forward to continuing some of those discussions in the near future.