If you’re a football fan, you’ll recognize this old quote from Vince Lombardi: “Perfecting the art of practice.” It’s something I think about often, and this image is a result of it.
I have been working the Milky Way for a few years now. Practice is essential, even for a shot that seems like it could work easily. There are many variables to contend with in night photography— ISO, Aperture, Shutter speed, the movement of the stars, and more. Night time captures are more of an "engineering" problem than most landscape photography. Some photographers are more apt than others, and I believe it is rare to find a "heartfelt” photographer who is equally skilled as the “engineering” type.
My usual method is to have a capture or a theme in my minds' eye, have a keen appreciation of the appropriate weather conditions, and make a journey out into the field with an open mind for what the conditions will give me photographically. Night images need to be carefully planned. Most images combine two or more exposures, which the photographer envisions beforehand as a final result, before the capture. There are rarely exceptions here; there is one exposure for the sky and one for the foreground.
I suspected, but was not sure, that this was the ideal night for this shot, early in the season so that heart of the Milky Way is visible, and before the road is open over the pass. There is a campground in the scene, and moving cars when the road is open to thru traffic. There were things that I did not expect, like the melting lake with some open water for reflections, which were amazing. As always, luck favors the prepared, and the practice in this case paid off too—I only made a few exposures—as I knew beforehand what to expect from the scene in front of me.
