It is after 1:00am in the morning in Westcliffe, a small town about 4 hours south of where I live near Boulder, CO. I am there because it is an International Dark Sky community and tonight is a new moon. The sky is super dark, and I am excited to try and capture a shot of the Milky Way. As I get in the car at the hotel to head to the site I had picked out earlier it starts to rain, and it becomes obvious that it is overcast with few stars visible, let alone the galactic center of the Milky Way I was hoping to shoot. With encouragement from my wife, we press on and as we get close I opt for a convenient location rather than hike up to the spot I had picked earlier, assuming that there wasn't much to get. As my eyes adjusted even further to the pitch-black night and I began to see what my camera was capturing I realized how fortunate I was that I didn’t turn around and climb back in bed like I wanted to an hour ago. I still regret that I gave up hiking to the spot I originally scouted out as I think that was a better shot but in the end the shot turned out okay.
One of the things I have learned about photography is having decent equipment and some knowledge of how to use it helps but the most important thing is to be in the right place at the right time. The only way to do that is try, try, and try again even when you aren’t sure what you get. And sometime that means standing on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere at 2:00am hoping something works out.
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