The Magic of the Milky Way {& Horses}

Last night, I asked my husband to go with me to our dam south of the old railroad tracks to shoot the Milky Way. I did the shooting, he took a nap. I brought him along because though I've lived out here for the past 11 years, being out in the pitch black of night alone petrifies me. You just never know what may be lurking in the shadows. Which in the case of night out on the prairie is everywhere. 

I'm just learning a bit of Astro Photography. Many of you may have seen photos of the Milky Way like these in the past several years, since it's become a very popular type of photography. Nikon even came out with a camera that has a very high ISO just for Astro Photography. 

Right now I'm pretty basic in my skills with this level of shooting. I keep everything about the same, ISO 6400, f/3.5, 20 sec, 28 mm (that's what I have at this point). I have been going back and foreth with different White Balances, Tungsten or Sunny. I like the blues in the Tungsten but I really love the purples and yellow/orange that comes out with Sunny. 

 When we got back to the house, I decided to walk out to the horses (I took my dog with me this time) to see what I could come up with. Since I have to have the camera open for atleast 20 seconds and my horses won't stand still for that long, they created some incredibly ghost-like yet breathtaking photos, in my opinion. I had my camera almost resting on the ground, stabilized by my tripod, so there's also the bits of grasses in the foreground.

I love that I can just walk outside my house and see these incredible skies! What an amazing Creator God is!