One photo a day challenge: Day 337.

I have really become interested in astrophotography and photographing the the night sky.

I went through an online video course on astrophotography and I am in the process of completing another online training course on astrophotography.

So I have been wanting to go outside and play around with it and see if it is actually anything I enjoy before investing too much more time or money into it.

This is the perfect time of year for me to practice it. Most of the subjects I typically photograph are not really present or less available in the colder months. This will allow me to focus more on a new pursuit without missing out on my normal subjects.

Also the fact that the sun sets earlier in the day than during the rest of the year makes night sky photography extremely accessible right now.

Tonight wasn’t a particularly good night for it though. The sky was almost completely cloud covered. No stars in sight.

But I still wanted to practice and see what types of images I could create.

I used some external lights to illuminate the scene a little bit.

I experimented with some camera settings to see what would produce the results I liked the best.

I shot all the images at a 30 second exposure to keep one variable constant.

Setting the aperture wide open let in the most light from the night sky and made the clouds more visible. That is what this image illustrates.

Then once I selected the image I liked the best in Lightroom I applied a preset that I liked to make the tree and sky pop.