Astrophotography and Whisky at Arches NP

The bejeweled night skies above Arches National Park had a powerful effect on both of us. Our place in life assumed its true perspective (we’re small, the universe is massive; that sort of thing) yet we came out inspired and galvanized to go onto greater things with our photography.

Then again, it could have been the half bottle of whiskey talking.

Taking this astrophotography shot was tricky, but I’m fairly happy with the result. We had turned up earlier in the day to work out which arches the Milky Way would lay behind. Suffice to say with 2000 or so arches in the park, we did not check each one! The only lights we had with us were torches. So lighting up Brei, the arch AND then running back in the dark to close the shutter (before the stars started trailing) proved awkward but amusing. Next time i’ll bring some remote lights to have more control of the scene.

The most rewarding part of the day was just toasting the splendour of the sky with a few glass of Jack Daniels. Post astrophotography shoot of course!

Below is photo taken at Skyline Arch earlier on in the day.

Hikers get ready to leave Skyline Arch in Arches National Park.