LocalNavy433 Photography

Hello and how the hell are you?  If this is your first time here thanks for stopping by.  In this blog we are going to talk about what its like to shoot the Milky Way for the first time.  For this I have to go back almost five years ago just to bring that experience to you.  It all started with me wanting to be able to take my own image of the Milky Way.  You see I was drawn to this with all the amazing images that you see online and I wanted to get one of my own.  I fell in love with photography and started down that path and I soon figured out that I could shoot the heavens with my camera.  Later in the blog you will see my first images of the Milky Way and the progression is huge. Remember we all start somewhere.

I was on a mission and studied for it night and day during my free time so I had a understanding on what I would need to do when out there at night.  I also wanted to know my camera in and out as there was not going to be much light when out in the middle of no where at night.  I also wanted to make sure that I was correct on my settings before I messed up to bad.  I had no clear expectations on what my images were going to look like.  Now that I had all these steps down I had to learn what I was looking for in the night sky.  

You see prior to this I had never truly seen the Milky with my own eye so I was not sure what I was looking for.  The wife and I took a drive down a country road at night looking for the Milky Way and when we parked and started star gazing she said it’s right there.  I was where I don’t see anything.  She grabbed my head and pointed it in the direction of the Milky Way.  I was shocked because I always thought that was a cloud in the sky or at least that is what it looked like to me.  I was hungry to see it more and more and the drive to shoot it with my camera was growing.  

I was also very intimidated by the process of shooting it.  I mean you have to shoot in manual mode and really know your settings in order to capture it with a camera.  I knew that I had to be at 18mm for the wide field of view that was needed for getting the sky.  I also knew that I needed to use the 500 rule.  The rule is simple you just take the focal length and divide it by 500 and that should be how long you keep the shutter open.  Great now I know how long to take the shot for.  I also learned that I needed to be around 1600 iso in order to let the sensor take the photo.  Now that I was sure about my settings it was time to head out and shoot.  

Not so fast I was still nervous with using my camera at night in the dark.  This is when I would stay up late at night sitting on my couch just holding the camera in my hands changing settings for hours on end just so I knew where each button was placed.  Trial and error on that for a few weeks but at the end of a few weeks I knew all the button placements and I could change the settings with my eyes closed.  Now it was time for me to head out and try my hand at shooting the night sky.  

When I was finally out shooting I was so excited to be out there shooting that I could not focus the camera for my life so I was getting nothing.  This was defeating for me but I came away with learning that there is a lot that goes into shooting the night sky.  So now I had to learn how to focus on the stars which was not that hard after learning to use live view and make the brightest star that you can find a pin dot on the screen.  Well that is what the video said that I watched.  The only problem was the camera I had at the time did not have live view. So I had to pre focus to get my images.  This meant that I was focusing on something far in the distance during the day and taping the lens so it would not move.  

I had a check list to go by now and that was set my settings for the shoot before I left the house so that way I was able to just pull the camera out of the bag and set it on the tripod and then shoot right.  I did it I got the shot I was so happy I was yelling with joy because of all the hard work that went into me getting the shot.  I found the image was a little dark but hey I got the shot and I was so happy.  Seeing the image pop up on the back of my camera was pure joy in my heart.  I did a little dance and yes I actually did a little dance and man life was good.  I accomplished what I set before myself and nothing could stop me now.

That is when you know that you did what you set out to do.  There was no one that I was counting on to get the shot it was up to me standing under the stars to get the shot and I did it.  Now it was time to figure out how to get a better shot the next time and I started the process of learning how to get a better shot of the night sky.  At the end of that night I was feeling pretty good and by telling this story again I feel that same joy and cannot wait to get out at night (when its warmer) to shoot the Milky Way core again.  Enjoy from St Johns AZ y’all.