This past Thursday I ventured out on a pre-planned trip to shoot the lupines at Sugar Hill, New Hampshire. Lupines are the bluish/purple plants above. These plants bloom in the beginning of June so I had a small window to get a photo of them. Also, I did some research and found that St. Matthew’s Chapel was in the perfect spot on top in a field of lupines. Even more fortunate, I found that during the same time in June, the Milky Way is visible behind the Church. I used the PhotoPills phone app to figure out the location of the Milky Way about a year in advance.
However, not everything can work out perfectly. Unfortunately, the Milky Way moved to the spot I wanted at about 2am, which meant a pretty late night. More unfortunately, the new moon was on a Thursday night, so I made this 6 hour round trip drive with work the next day. But after working through this photo and seeing the results, I do not regret a second of it.
So, I am still generally new to night photography. In fact, this is my second shot of the Milky Way. Here is my first. Despite my inexperience, you get plenty of time at night for trial and error before you miss your chance. And that was definitely the case here. I light painted almost this whole scene, which meant that I ran around with a flashlight flashing it on the whole landscape. Which also means that this image is a combination of several photos that I took on a tripod. Overall, I enjoyed visiting this spot and will likely go back next year possibly for a sunset shot. Hope you like the results!