We had a long-planned trip (pre-covid) to a ranch in WY and it was a class 2
Bortle brought an astro kit in lieu of film. We only had carry-ons. We had
scoped out a couple nice MW shots during the day but had not tried any dry runs
at night. We should have dropped a pin on google maps. The night skies did
not cooperate except once. Marnie and I got permission via the ranch owner to
get through a neighbor's locked gate onto BLM land very close to a cool chimney
rock where the access allowed for MW shots with it in the frame. There was a
field in front with an old truck totally out of place on the landscape with
cool flaking paint and one could compose the shot so that lines on the body
pointed towards the galactic core. There was a chimney rock I could light
paint to some degree to balance the composition. My spidey senses honed from
OM viewfinders indicated a decent shot was possible. We got to ride back there
a few days later.
Marnie's horse Brewster is looking right at the rock here:
https://www.olyendomike.com/Wyoming-2022/i-vQJXBvS/A
"Tragically" in the pitch black the proper driveway was a bear to find even
though we knew about where it was. The sign we saw in the oldest
establishment in Shell WY is misleading.
https://www.olyendomike.com/Wyoming-2022/i-dHqn5kb/A
We went down the wrong driveway and came across the largest Trump sign we've
ever seen as many lights came on from motion detectors and 5 large dogs started
barking and growling. There was a large sign saying Trespassers eff off.
Needless to say, we skedaddled post haste and did not have the nerve to try the
next driveway.
The other option was rather far and not that much easier to find. We scrambled
for a decent foreground and Marnie spotted this Ranch sign. Well, I had to try
something after lugging gear thousands of miles. I used low level lighting for
the foreground shot using an android app on a phone I only use for such a
purpose as didn't like the IOS options. It was dead calm, so the grass stayed
sharp. I stacked 10 shots for the sky using Sequater.
https://www.olyendomike.com/Wyoming-2022/i-HXM6QCG/A
The wranglers took some shots with an Oly tough cam but I learned that the jpeg
shots in non photog hands are probably not as good as most phone shots---due to
the auto HDR.
I rather liked this shot of Marnie but they clipped the sky. I fixed what I
could. I had my GM-5 out and should have handed it to them.
https://www.olyendomike.com/Wyoming-2022/i-SgF6MfW/A
There are a few more but nothing of note.
https://www.olyendomike.com/Wyoming-2022/
Perhaps Next Time, Mike
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