Indulge in the beauty of the cosmos! While Lake Santa Fe offers picturesque scenery and watersports during the day, the true allure of this destination for me lies in its nighttime splendor when creates a whole new encounter.
While I often am challenged with finding optimal vantage points for the celestial objects I wish to capture, I'm lucky to have wonderful neighbors and local residents that welcome me to their docks so I can have the angles I need. The peaceful ambiance is a stark contrast to the dramatic diamond-like stars evident on clear nights, their reflection bouncing on the still water surface as if they are gems being sprinkled onto a velvet cloth. Those nights, they still take my breath away.
The Florida weather does not often lend well to astrophotography. I'm limited first by the location of the objects I want to photograph; they have seasons and are not always visible when weather is clear. It seems that storm clouds or thick summer haze obscures the sky on the nights when my objects would otherwise be visible.
And then you have the bugs. I can recall nights when mosquitos were so thick, their buzz made me dizzy and I could not open my mouth, fearing I would inhale a mouthful from the cloud of insects swarming my body.
Sometimes, I'll even have the rouge 'Gator hunter out on the lake, swinging his glaringly bright spotlight directly into my lens... sigh.
Sometimes, my attempts fall short of demonstrating the magic dancing in the night sky above. I can be frustrating, with star trails that are barely visible. Dull, lifeless images that fail to capture the grandeur of the cosmos.
The reward then lies in the perseverance, when I accomplish what I set out to do and bring to life the image I had long planned out and envisioned.
Keep looking up, try to find your own corner and have a truly awe-inspiring stargazing experience.
Thank you Janet for letting me crash on your dock for a few hours last night! This is the end result of 98 images stacked together, as the stars all rotate around Polaris, the 'North Star' then positioned over the foreground of Janet's dock.
Santa Fe Stargazing
