When a 3 night reservation turns into two…continued

Let’s see. When I left you last my sister and I had driven a few hours north, scoped out a potential night sky photography site at a lighthouse, and set up our campsite at Harrisville State Park.

The view from our campsite.

The purpose of this three night camping adventure was to capture the Milky Way in darker skies than those around my house. I’d made the three night reservation six months ago in order to get a prime Lake Huron shoreline site.

I was sure that at least one night would have clear skies.

A view of the lighthouse from about where we planed to stand later that night.

Based on weather forecasts it looked like Monday night/Tuesday morning was my only chance. So we set our phone alarms to get us up at 2:00 a.m. and in the early morning darkness we drove the few miles to the lighthouse.

We quickly found the “X” we had drawn in the sand earlier in the day and began to set up shop. But while I was lengthening the tripod legs I noticed a light way out on the horizon, shining just above the bench I intended to use as a foreground. The light bothered me because it was so bright.

See that light in the middle of the horizon? It was a lot brighter than it looks here. The orange is light pollution.

I took a couple shots but didn’t like what I was seeing.

Too much light from towns to the south.

I decided to shorten the tripod legs in an attempt to hide the light behind the dune. I sent my sister over to the bench so I could try to focus on it, intending for it to be in the foreground which would be stitched together with another image with the focus being the stars.

She’s walking back using the red light. You can still see some of that bright light on the horizon to the right of her.

That didn’t work, I couldn’t focus on her at all, so I gave up that theory. Plus we were too far away from the bench and if I moved closer there would be that darn light out there on the horizon.

I decided to just try for a single image, nothing I had to stitch together later, just practicing getting the stars in focus. That worked and I took several of the same image so I’d have some spares to practice stacking when I got back home.

You can see the bench, but it’s really small and there’s too much light pollution.

But all the time I was focused on the Milky Way I’d been distracted by the lighthouse to my right. The grounds had a single large light on the other side of the building which was lighting up the side of the tower. I thought it was beautiful and wanted to get a shot of that even if it wasn’t a Milky Way image.

I started to move the camera around while not realizing the shutter was still open.

So once I was done with the multitude of stackable images of the Milky Way, and feeling disappointed in the images I had so far, I turned the camera toward the lighthouse. And the first test image I took I realized included a small part of the Milky Way!

How exciting, it was possible to get the Milky Way and the lighthouse in the same image! Quickly I shifted the camera to the right. And this is what I saw:

Nikon Z6ii, 20 mm, iso 3200, 12 seconds.

The yard light they had perfectly lit the tower without being obscene. I had enough time in between flashes of light to get the image because there was so much other light around. And by moving to the right I had eliminated most of the ugly orange light pollution that blasted out over the lake.

I was thrilled.

The rest of the night I worked on getting the best composition, and then taking multiple shots to stack later. I think I was also trying to get one image with the lighthouse in focus that I could use as a foreground to be blended with my best sky shot.

To be honest I don’t know if I did that. I haven’t looked closely at all the images yet. I fell in love with the single image I’m showing you now and sort of stopped looking after that.

It’s such a great reminder of the entire adventure.

If I don’t end up doing anything more with these I’ll still be happy. I need to read the study guides in my online class to learn how to do blends where part of the image is from one shot with the foreground in focus and the rest of the image is from a sky shot with the stars in focus. It can’t be that hard. Right?

Right???!

So what did we do the rest of our three nights at Harrisville? Well…this has gotten too long already so once again you’ll have to wait and see. But I don’t think anything we did the rest of our time there will top that first night.

Hint: There were no more clear skies, day OR night!

When I’m out shooting the stars I don’t feel the cold. My sister, who was patiently waiting for me was marching up and down the beach trying to thaw her toes. I didn’t notice the cold until we got back to the car, and then I realized I was cold to the core.

We got back to camp about 5 a.m. and headed to our tents to get one hour of sleep before the 6 a.m. sunrise which we wanted to photograph. But we were both so cold all we did was shiver in our tents, even with our electric blankets, as we waited for the sun to come up.

The first hint of sunrise.

And after we got a couple shots with the sun rising we scurried to McDonalds to get a hot cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich. It took a couple hours before we were ready to head back to our tents for a nap.

It was pretty but we were too cold to appreciate it.

Warm was good.

So Monday night/Tuesday morning was the highlight of our camping adventure. Would it be worth it to stick around Harrisville for the rest of our reservation? Hard to say. When I get some more time I’ll show you around town.

But it won’t be under the stars.

When a three night reservation turns into two.

Six months ago I reserved a campsite on the shores of Lake Huron during a new moon cycle, intent on doing some Milky Way photography. Many years ago Katie and I camped at this state park and I remembered a lighthouse located just a few miles north that might work for night photography.

This is the Sturgeon Point Lighthouse.

My sister drove all the way up from Alabama just to go with me on this photography adventure. Last Monday we set out early in the day so that we had time to scout out the lighthouse location for potential night shots.

My sister noticed this split in color on the lake.

You see, the weather didn’t look promising beyond Monday night. That’s what happens when you have to book something months out. Weather is always the unknown element. We expected a clear night Monday, but rain and cold Tuesday and Wednesday.

We discussed going back home Tuesday if it was miserable.

Monday was a beautiful day.

And we knew we’d only have one night to get the Milky Way. So we needed to be ready.

The lighthouse was just as I remembered it, standing tall on the shores of the Great Lake. We wandered the beach looking for something interesting to put in the foreground.

The bench might look fun under the Milky Way.

Eventually we decided we needed to be quite a bit behind the lighthouse in order to be shooting Southeast where the Milky Way would be. We found a place that might work, tucked low behind a small dune, and made a big X in the sand so we could find the spot in the darkness of 2 a.m., our planned shoot time.

Probably not this angle though.

Then we explored other places on the site, including Baily School which wasn’t open, but we got an interesting shot through the window anyway.

A school room from back in the day.

We wandered down the beach to the south, thinking maybe the rocks out in the water might be interesting. Even if we didn’t end up shooting there at night, they made a nice, minimal, image in the sunshine we were enjoying.

Maybe we could light paint this rock.

Eventually it was time to go check into the campground. If all three days were as nice as Monday we’d have a wonderful time. If only.

Our campsite, right on the shore, was small, but we managed to make it work.

Maybe the weather forecasts were wrong.

We did note that of the handful of people camping along the shore we were the only ones in tents. Perhaps we were a touch too early in the camping season.

The view from our camp site looked promising.

Not to worry, we each had electric blankets and we were confident that we’d be fine. This was not our first spring camping experience.

Our beach. Though it was too cold to swim.

So…you might ask…what happened on Monday night? Did we leave our nice warm, snuggly beds to drive up to the lighthouse at 2 in the morning? Or did the waves lapping on the shore lull us back to sleep after our alarms rang?

Stop! Don’t drive into the lake!

I guess you’ll have to wait and see.

Happy Mother’s Day

Even though my mother has been gone for almost 20 years, it feels important to acknowledge her on Mother’s Day.

After all I had the best mother ever! She let her band of four kids roam the lake and woods together without getting upset when we came home wet and muddy.

She fixed meals for her family of six every single day even when she’d worked all day at running her retail business downtown.

She supported our interests whether it was music or writing or photography or swimming or boating or building forts in the woods. She encouraged us to be the best we could at whatever we loved.

She sacrificed things she might have wanted to do in order to provide us the ability to do the things we cared about.

She smiled when we painted her a card or brought her flowers from the field, no matter how crazy our art was or how wilted the flowers.

And she loved that we all turned out to be productive and independent people, in no small part because of her.

Thanks, mom, for pushing us and putting up with us and loving us through all the muddy, crazy years. I hope you have the most beautiful flowers up there in heaven, though I’m sure you won’t think they compare to those we picked for you decades ago.

We’re behind!

Hey everybody! It’s me Penny.

Mom says we haven’t had internet for a million years. Ok, maybe it only FELT like a million years, maybe it was just about a week.

Mom told me to sit on this bench. So I did.

Anyway I’ve been to lots and lots of parks lately ’cause mom and dad are getting stuff done on the house and I tend to bark a lot while stuff is being done on the house.

But mom! I’m not sure about sitting next to a BOY!

Plus mom says it’s really nice to have the time to go to parks and work on my behavior issues. Seriously mom? Does it look like I have behavior issues?

Deuce seemed to tolerate my curiosity, but I don’t think he was thrilled to sit next to a GIRL either.

I didn’t think so.

Mom says she has some really nice pictures of me that she will share with you once she gets them edited and stuff. Which could be a million years from now.

Or a about a week.

Pictures in this post were taken by my Aunt Karen, Deuce’s mom.

Hard telling with mom.

Signing off for now, your photography model and exemplary citizen,

Penny.

Reposting an important discussion about domestic abuse

Nonsmoking Ladybug shared today some scary memories of her own childhood that flashed back into her memory while she watched this powerful dance number which aired on America’s Got Talent.

Take a moment and go over there and watch, though be warned it may be a trigger.

https://nonsmokingladybug.wordpress.com/2024/04/20/something-so-beautiful-and-so-powerful

While I don’t have personal memories like this, I know people, all women, who do. Some are still experiencing these events today.

A dance like this will spark conversations. Hard, outraged, sad conversations. It’s likely any one conversation will cover all these emotions and more.

But beyond discussing, what can we do?

I don’t have any experience in what to do. But I’ve been reading Kim Sisto Robinsin at My Inner Chick on Facebook for years. Kim’s brother-in-law murdered her sister Kay after years of abuse as Kay was attempting to leave him.

Now it’s Kim’s mission to spread the word that help is available.

I know, from reading, that it’s not as simple as just leaving. You need a plan and a support system. And it’s very scary. But the first step might just be talking to someone.

Here is one place to start: National Hotline for Domestic Abuse: 1 800 799 7233

Now, go watch that dance again and try not to cry. I had my support dog, Penny, with me. She pushed her nose right under my arm and pressed her body next to my hip as I sniffled.

May you all have a Penny in your life. And may you all be safe in your worlds tonight.

Sage advice from a young pup

Penny here! Bet you’ve been wondering what I’ve been up to!

Don’t you kind of wonder what’s over this hill?

Well, first off let me tell you that I’ve been going to school every week. Mom takes me into the ring and gives me treats when I do stuff. Daddy comes along to watch cause I’m beautiful. Or something.

For the last two weeks I have decided I need to tell the other dogs in my class off, and I’ve been lunging and growling and barking at them. Mom takes me right out of the ring when I do that. Dad shakes his head. They haven’t figured out what my problem is — I’ve been going to school since I was a baby and never did this before.

Mom is very discouraged.

A girl just wants to have fun, mom.

But on happier fronts, daddy has been getting some work done on my castle so there’s lots of strangers and weird noises that cause me to bark. A lot. After all it’s my responsibility to warn my folks of all imminent danger.

Hills are good for you, mom!

So mom’s been packing me and my stuff up and taking me away for days at a time. I’m not always sure I want to go, because sometimes when she bundles me up in the car I end up at the groomer or the vet.

What’s that in there, mom?

But so far we’ve been visiting parks! A different park every day! Sometimes two parks in a day!

There’s people out there!

Mom and I have been walking millions of trillions of steps every day. She says she’s tired. We both sleep all night, so that’s good. I personally think it’s good for mom to get out more. I’m doing my duty as a faithful dog to show her a good time.

And I guess, if I’m honest, she’s doing the same for me.

We’re having a good day, aren’t we mom!

I don’t think a dog could have a better time than I do when I’m at a park. Mom lets me sniff stuff, she’s not in a big hurry, but I move along right away if she says “leave it, let’s go.” I know there will be another good spot right up the path.

There always is.

Hey mom! They burned my woods! The green will come back, right mom?

I think that’s a lesson you humans should learn too. There’s always a good spot right up the path.

I’m a happy girl!

You can say you heard that here first, and thank me later.

Don’t forget to stop and smell the flowers!

Gotta run, mom’s waiting for me. Talk to you next time!

-Your Park Ranger Girl, Penny.

Night adventure

I’ve been waiting for a clear night with no moon and Saturday night/Sunday morning was it. It’s early Milky Way season and it would be visible for a couple hours before sunrise.

I just had to find a dark place to wait.

I got up at 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning, got to Shiawasee Nature Preserve, about an hour north of me, by 3:30. I thought I was prepared. I knew which direction to look. I had the Skyview app loaded in my phone. I had a compass. I’d been there during the daytime and had scoped out a spot to stand that was very near where my car would be parked.

So it was with high hopes I got out of the car in 32 degree weather (but no wind!) wearing a winter coat, scarf, hat, and gloves. I walked the few feet to my chosen spot, set up the tripod and pointed it to the SE. And saw….nothing. A few stars. Nothing much was visible because the light from Flint, 28 miles away, was overwhelming.

I began to doubt myself. Maybe it wasn’t really in the SE. Maybe it was more South by now. After all it was last week I had the training that said Southeast…maybe it moves faster than I imagined. I couldn’t remember the name of the constelations I was supposed to use to find the Milky Way. I couldn’t figure out how to put Antaras (a star) into the Skyview app on my phone to find it.

I was reduced to randomly pointing the camera at the sky in any location I thought it might be and shooting. I saw a few bright stars I thought might be the ‘teapot’ and concentrated on that section of the sky. But that was due South, and I knew that wasn’t right. Still, looking to the Southeast was just too bright.

As I played with my settings I couldn’t check to see if my images were getting better or worse because the back of my camera went black. Apparently I had touched some random button that disabled the live view. Sigh.

I tried the proven trick of upping my iso to the highest it could go, just so I could see what was there, and it was totally blown out white. I tried lowering it some, still white. My fingers were getting cold. My toes were numb. I’d been out there for an hour getting nothing.

In fact, this is my favorite shot from Sunday morning.

My fingers were numb and I didn’t realize I had hit the remote shutter button when I moved the camera.

When I got home I found this image, as the best of the bunch. The Milky Way is in there, if you squint hard and use your imagination. I’ve tried editing it to bring it out more…but I can’t figure that out either on this one. Trying to bring the Milky Way lights up while dimming the Flint dome light is just so hard.

If you sit in a dark room, blow this up, and squint you should be able to see the MW over on the left.

So I reluctantly posted my image on our group’s Facebook page, explaining my issues (well, the issues revolving photography anyway!) and look below at what someone did for me! They edited it so that you can actually see the Milky Way.

Thank you Geralynn Dykstra for the edit!!!!

I’m not so discouraged now. I DID get the Milky Way in the image! I even got stars reflected in the strip of water! I won’t go out to this location for another attempt, there’s just way too much light. But I’ll keep going to dark sky places and I know that eventually I’ll capture the sky the way I see it in my head.