That night at Cherry Springs State Park turned me into a night sky snob

I was out near Coudersport, Pennsylvania with a guy named Frank who had been shooting the Milky Way for 20 years. He pointed at my wide angle lens and said 'stop trying to fit everything in the frame, zoom in on one cluster and let the rest fade.' I had been taking these messy, overexposed shots for months and his 30 second tip made my next 10 photos actually look like something. Has anyone else had a random stranger at a dark site totally change your process?

2 comments

2 Comments

xena_brown501d ago

Getting a little dramatic calling yourself a snob over one zoom tip, aren't you? I've seen guys with 20 years of experience give advice that works great for their specific camera but bombs for someone else's setup. Dark skies are nice, sure, but bad composition is bad composition whether you're in the middle of nowhere or your own backyard. Three seconds of good advice isn't some life changing event, it's just a person telling you to zoom in. Maybe try the same trick on a cloudy night in a city park and see if it still feels like magic.

king.stella1d agoMost Upvoted

@xena_brown50, do you mind if I push back a little on that? I used to think the exact same way. I remember rolling my eyes at people who acted like one trick was the secret to everything. But I tried this zoom tip last week with my old camera, and it honestly changed how I see things. I have a cheap setup, nothing fancy, and it worked better than I expected. It is not magic, but it made me realize sometimes we miss good advice because we are too busy being skeptical.