Or, a happy accident…whichever way you look at it ( I’m sticking with the Enchanted Evening) it’s a pretty cool image…
So, here’s how it came about…
We had just come back from a wonderful dinner with the judges and officials and said our good nights. I wandered up to my room and stepped out on the balcony and saw all the stars in the sky. Still filled with the need to click a few more shots before packing it up to head home I set up my camera on the balcony and set the interval timer to keep shooting until the battery ran out (54 images in all). I used the interval timer method to make the star trails. Over the course of the evening some clouds rolled through and the warm glow on the horizon is the city of Rockford, IL in the distance. When I took a quick glance at the rear lcd the next morning, I saw the clouds and thought it was a bust. It wasn’t until I was editing the images later that I saw the potential of the star trail with the clouds moving through and the light pollution reflecting in the pond (almost as I had composed it that way). It really was an enchanted evening as I climbed into bed filled with the joy of experiencing a new event, having my hard drives filled with great images, meeting new and interesting people and at the generous hospitality of my hosts…JoAnn & Ron. Thanks for an amazing experience!
