[Click the image to view in a lightbox.]

[Note: I wrote a kind of follow-up to this post the next day.]

Several years ago I took up woodworking. It’s a craft and a material I’d been fascinated with for years, ever since I did a bit of wood finishing while working as a house painter in college. Yet I’d never really explored it.

There were a few reasons I finally gave it a go. One was that we got snowed in during the holidays and the family was going stir crazy. Another was something Kate and I observed about our eldest daughter. Molly was perhaps 8 at the time, and overflowing then as now with creativity, fresh ideas, and artistic talent. But Kate and I also noticed that Molly didn’t want to try anything she wasn’t already good at. She was afraid of embarrassing herself by not being an automatic expert.

So I decided to set a good example for Molly by being really bad at something new.

I tried my best at the craft, while also embracing my inevitable, initial terribleness at it; I made dozens of mistakes in front of everyone and with a good attitude. This wasn’t easy for me, FYI. I’m vain in my own way, and most dads want their kids to admire their work rather than laugh at it. But I jumped in. I made laughably bad wooden spoons, spatulas, dovetail boxes, and more — and I did all of it (or most of it) with a smile. And maybe it worked because, today, we rarely see in Molly that old hesitation to try new things.

I thought about my early forays in woodworking when I was reviewing my first-ever night sky pictures, which I took last night. I’ve wanted to try Milky Way photography, but I’ve been intimidated by the technique, the required gear, and — I’ll admit it — the prospect of being alone in the dark for hours on end in the middle of nowhere. Yet I’ve been surprised how the desire to take a picture has provided the extra motivation to try new things, go new places, make good on old promises, and push through long-held fears. That proved true again last night. Knowing that “Milky Way season” (February-October) will soon close I decided to jump right in.

I started yesterday evening by watching a live webinar featuring Nikon photographers Paul Van Allen and Joel Bremer. The webinar, sponsored by The Shutterbug, an Oregon-based camera store, was informative and No-B.S. practical. And even though conditions weren’t optimal, I wanted to apply what I learned right away, in whatever way I could.

What do I mean that conditions weren’t optimal? Well, I took these shots in my backyard, with street lamps behind and in front of me. The lights of the house were on behind me too, and it’s not like Silverton is a “dark sky site” to begin with. I didn’t have an interesting foreground subject. In fact, the roofline of the neighbors’ garage was blocking the core of the Milky Way (see below).

I also didn’t have a great lens. I used my “nifty-fifty,” a 50mm f1.8. The “f1.8” part is actually great. That means the lens opens up wide to let in a ton of light — pretty critical when photographing distant stars, space gases, and galactic dust. But 50mm just isn’t a great focal length for Milky Way photography. (I have a used Tamron 17-35mm f/2.8-4 coming in the mail today.)

On top of all this I have zero knowledge or experience editing Milky Way photography.

Were the photographs successful? For the most part, no. And yet I found the whole process to be addictively fun. Even when a curious police officer drove by twice to see what some random dude was doing out in the middle of the night. And even when I got seriously spooked by two glowing eyes in a nearby field. (The animal turned out to be a deer.) I can’t wait to go out again. So maybe the experience was a success after all.

It’s likely I’ll be bad at Milky Way photography for a while. But I’m going to keep trying, and — despite my vanity — I’ll even share some of those early, imperfect steps here and on Instagram. I sent them to Molly first thing this morning.

[Click images to view in a lightbox.]

Main Image

Location: Silverton, Oregon

Exposure: 5 seconds, f/1.8, ISO 6400

Focal Length: 50 mm

Gear:

• Camera: Nikon D850

• Lens: Nikkor 50 mm f/1.8G