Growing up in College Park, Georgia I never thought about seeing things such as the Milky Way. It wasn’t until I lived overseas and started snowboarding that I actually saw the night sky without any light pollution. Over the past year I have been fortunate to witness the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis as it is called. Since I have started in photography one of my main goals was to capture the Milky Way. I finally got the opportunity to do just that in Killarney National Park in Ireland. This was Ireland’s first national park. During the summer in Ireland it is important to note that the sun sets around 10 pm so if you want to do any night photography it has to be late.
The goal of this night was never to photograph the Milky Way. It was actually to catch some nice sunset shots. Well dinner went a little long so the goal became to get some nice blue hour photos. I was driving to one location but decided not to turn off at the last second and ended up parked at the Gap of Dunloe. I took a couple of reflection shots but began to see the stars come out as it got later and later. I decided I would take some star trail photos. My battery died half way through my star trail photos and I was trying to decide whether or not try again. I opened my StarMap 3D+ app which tells you the constellations as you hold it up to the sky. I saw the Milky Way and was excited. A photo of the StarMap app is shown below.
So around 1 am I was able to capture the Milky Way for the first time. This image is composed of 6 wide angle shots stitched together as a panorama via Lightroom.
Camera Settings
Aperature: F2.8
24mm
Shutter 30 seconds
ISO 4000