PHOTOGRAPHING THE MILKY WAY

NIGHT SKY PHOTOGRAPHY

Recently I was on Maui with my family and wanted to get some night sky photos of the Milky Way from one of the absolute best night sky viewing spots on the planet - the top of Haleakala Volcano. At over 10,000 feet, it is one of the tallest volcanoes in the world, bested only by Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea Volcanoes on the Big Island at close to 14,000 feet. What better place to take photos of the stars and the Milky Way Galaxy!

We went up the mountain just as the sun was going down. It's a very long way up. It took us more than an hour to get from Makawao (the nearest town) to the top of the volcano. Once we got there we braced ourselves for the cold. Even though it was summer in Hawaii, it was below freezing at the top of Haleakala. The gusty winds did nothing to help!

Using my Nikon D610 camera with my 16-35mm 1.4G on my travel tripod, I set it up for a 30 second timed exposure at F4, ISO 4000. I had my subjects stand as still as possible, which is not that easy to do for 30 seconds! To light them and the plants in the foreground I used a flashlight, "painting" the light onto them for a split second. The result was a good exposure for the milky way as well as for my foreground subjects...and you can't even see them shivering! :-) See more photos from this set in my Art Photos Gallery: