I really have no hope for this photo. 1st time ever shooting the night sky, and it was a story.
Let me tell you! (you have no choice, I am going to tell it, so you can feel the pain of my day)
So googled and looked at night sky pic all day. Everyone seems to use the same exposure and ISO. How hard could this be. (uurrhggkkkeeekkk)
Decided where I wanted to go, but, then in my brain, got all twisted, as it is right on the border and some bad juju is going down in that particular area with drug runner and coyotes.
So persuade my 13 and 15 year old to come with me, so I would not be by-myself, and we could all probably die as a family unit. The 13 year old is 6 foot 2, the 15 year old is 6 foot 4.
The the 15 year old got his BFF to come, so we had the 5 foot 5 kid with the Napoleon attitude that he was going to 'take on' all the drug barons/coyotes. This was at 9.30am on Saturday. I told them we would not leave, till 10pm that night, so get some sleep in.
No of course, bloody not. They all drank Red Bull and ate sugar,,,, ALL DAY>>>>>>>>
SO 10pm rolls around, we get in the car. At this point, I have my zombie machete with me, just in case and camera gear and a super large container of very cheap Costco Muffins. We also have fishing gear in the car. Unfortunelty, Napoleon's fishing case, looks just like a Bazooka.
No worries.
Then find out an hour into the road trip, that all 3 kids, have 2 Zombie machetes on each of them, including a 2 pellet/air-soft 22's look alike. So in total, we have 8 Zombie Knives, 2 realistic guns and a bazooka. Then my 15 year old casually mentions we have a live gun under the seat that his father told him to bring. And I causally mention I have a flare gun in case of an emergency.
So we are armed to the teeth, we are ready for war.
All I can imagine, is if we got stopped by the cops/BP, what would it look like when we dropped all the weapons out of the windows.
So we potter another 150 miles to our destination, we are herping at that point too, as it is the wet lands. Abundant in wildlife, teeming with interesting snakes and wildlife. So we run over western diamond back snake and bunny by mistake, but still take photos, we find 1 tree frog. Take pictures, of this cute thing on our hands, it is so cute, like you could kiss the thing... Yeah, no, it has toxic skin, didn't find that out till later! YAY!
There is so little wildlife , that the two boys ended up in front of the car, walking and me driving 1 mile an hour, just so they could flash their lights and hope to find anything. So 4 miles later and 5 thousand hours of country music, we got to the lake.
At this point, I was done. I know exactly how many 99 bottles of beer are on the wall, in time and miles, as the radio conked out ages ago. Every s i n g l e bloody bottle of beer.
It has only taken us 4 hours to go 130 miles.
So I set up my camera on the tripod, dial in all the info I have written on the back of the water bill for ISO and F stops. Start taking pictures.
OMG they are amazing!!!!! Fall over several pieces of grass and thankfully not fall into the lake. 2.5 hours, I am pressing that button, for a 30 second exposure then waiting at least another 30-45 seconds for the camera to process.
Meanwhile, all those teenage boys, are trying to be quiet, as I keep shushing them. Then I finally look, really hard at them as they suddenly go from intense white burn your eyeballs out flashlights to dulled flashlights ($19.99 at Costco, along with those muffins) ((highly recomend))
They are all buck naked, swimming in the lake with the flashlights underwater catching baby fish for bait, naked, with the $19.99 flashlights. (I recommend, again, from Costco)
I am taking photos all over the place, I am an EXPERT at this!!! I am going to be a winner winner of a very large chicken dinner, I am so proud of myself.
The around 4.30am I am still shooting, the kids are somewhat dressed. Then the birds start chirping and dawn comes along. SO by 5.30 I am done, took artistic pic of the lake and kids (not naked).
Go to the car. Look at the camera that has shown me fabulous photos all night in the pitch black.
They are ALL out of FOCUS, EVERY single one of them, all those hours of clicking the stupid button and putting up with shushing naked teenagers.. ALL out of focus. Bar the 4.30am shots, ALL bloody 6 of them!!!!!!!!!
So what you have here, is 4-6 photos, merged. That is it and that took me 7 hours on Photoshop going to a zillion different exposures, recovery, selective colours and several panicked PM's to the SC to see if it was legal!
SO that is the story of my 1st ever night shoot! Yay =\
[Aug. 28th, 2018 12:15:53 AM]
I tried to self DQ today, as I found out that I had nothing but Space crap in my photo and no shooting stars. Was told to hold on til the end of challenge and let voters decide. So here is another outtake, so scalvert is or are any of these shooting stars? At this point, I just want to learn a thing or two about night sky's, as it really was a learning and fun experience.
~~~8/30/2018
Edited to add. I am sorry scalvert but you came out as a women and non member in my before post .All sorts of things are going wrong here!!! =)
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 9 Avg (all users): 7.7460 Avg (commenters): 8.8333 Avg (participants): 8.6667 Avg (non-participants): 7.7000 Views since voting: 1297 Views during voting: 213 Votes: 63 Comments: 27 Favorites: 0
Wow, Juliet, what a story. No wonder I don’t win ribbons — I have never put that much work into a photo. And the payoff — a score in the stratosphere, and a blue ribbon. CONGRATULATIONS!
Oh, what a story and adventure your boys (and friend) will have to tell for years to come!!! I don̢۪t care if they are stars or not...it̢۪s a great picture for sure!!! (Insert LOUD smacking kiss!!!)
Juliet, I'm SO delighted you won the blue with this beauty. I love your satellite trails AND your story ;-)) If you were given your own show on the box I'd even go turn on the TV again.
Your persistence paid off, goes to show anyone what they can do if they really put their mind to achieve something, well done, and thanks for the laugh!
oh .. ps .. i gave you a 10 .. thats like a Northern Hairy Nosed Wombat .. i googled rare animals to find out that information .. like me giving out a 10 is a rare thing .. well not exactly rare .. but i dont give them out willy nilly thats for sure ..
and its funny that what came up when i googled was a wombat .. as a wombat is an australian marsupial .. and i'm australian ..
FYI .. a wombat is a burrowing plant-eating Australian marsupial which resembles a small bear with short legs.
i read thru your entire story ..
you could be a story teller as your second job ..
or a novelist .. or something along those lines .
you kept me enthralled, interested, laughing and looking forward to the next paragraph ..
what amazing lengths you went to ... i should take a page out of your book .. the one you are surely going to write .. the one that tells ppl that its definitely in their best interests to go to extreme lengths to get a photograph .. thats if its required .. on the other hand .. a photo captured on the go without any preparation can be awesome too ..
talking about awesome . THIS IS IT ..
many congrats on your blue ...
if there was a better than blue ribbon it would be yours .. the ribbon ppl get when they not only have a wonderful photograph, but that they went to extraordinary lengths to get it ..
the bit in your story about the frog .. so funny .. and then .. hope you are ok ..
a great yarn ..
Terrific extended image capturing numerous meteors, their reflections and, as icing, the Milky Way. The orange glow over the hills, also reflected, adds depth of time. Elicits the feeling of a flurry of action amidst eternity.
Is this Parker Lake in Arizona? If so, and even if not, it brings back fond memories of gallivanting across the country in my early twenties, searching out this isolated dot on the map. Still can't believe that I was able to hitchhike to and then out of there. Thank you for that.
oh my .. !!!! ..
this is absolutely STUNNING ..
amazing colours and depth .. just gorgeous ..
you must have a great camera .. lol ... !!!! .. ;)
hopefully you understand the joke ..
a photographer takes a wonderful photograph and a newbie or whoever says .. 'oh wow .. you must have a great camera ..'
annoy as .. !! ..
anyway .. just seen all the entries ..
this has to be blue .. :)
Lovely night sky photo, especially with the water reflections. You even caught a glimpse of the Andromeda Galaxy between the top center trails. The bad news is that there aren't any Perseids in it. Those streaks are almost certainly satellite trails (the one at top left could be an airplane). The radiant for this meteor shower is at the top edge of this frame along the Milky Way, so any Perseids would trace back to that point. If you look through your other shots, you may find some Persieds, although with such a wide field all but the brightest ones will look like hairlines or a very thin teardrop shape. Any meteor trails at top center would be very short since they're shooting directly at you.
Having seen an outtake, I know who took this photo and won't vote on it. Given the tiny pool of entries and DPC's penchant for dark, moody scenes, there's a good chance you reel in a red (or even blue) ribbon in the Perseid Meteor Shower challenge without capturing a single Perseid meteor. Well played!
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scalvert is or are any of these shooting stars? At this point, I just want to learn a thing or two about night sky's, as it really was a learning and fun experience. 
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