Night photography when it’s frickin cold outside

I’m camping around Florida (more on that here) and last night I was determined to get some late night astrophotography. It’s been cloudy for days but the sky opened up late afternoon yesterday, OK it’s on! I reviewed the settings to use in order to get the best starry photographs and every few minutes, amped myself up by saying, “You can do this. You can DO THIS.” Why such encouragement? Because it’s frickin’ cold outside! In hindsight, I could’ve used a pair of gloves. Here’s proof. As I was setting up the tripod, my knuckles hit the asphalt in the parking lot, not once but about 4 times. I didn’t even feel it. Didn’t even know I was bleeding till I was almost done shooting! Hopefully this won’t make you squeamish.

Injuries aside, I was able to get the gear set up and although the Milky Way isn’t visible in Florida at the moment, I love how these pictures came out! In fact, I’m not even ashamed to show you some of the photos that DIDN’T turn out so well haha. Let’s start with those. All of these were taken between 10pm and 2am.

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And now that those are out of the way, here are the ones I’m very happy with!

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I often say that anything someone does in really cold weather is an addiction. It could be smoking, golfing, fishing, you name it… so I guess I love photography. I’ll say this, too… I appreciate warm hands and a warm camper to return to on night’s like this one.

Thanks for dropping in…

-Out of the Wilderness