I’m one lucky guy.

After the lack of success (note, not failure, because I did get some fantastic shots) of the last trip, this time I was much more prepared. I had made food, got some bug repellent, bought snacks, and took a blanket with me with the intention of camping out until the last light has faded from the skies.

In addition, I dragged Paige along with me, though she was visibly more excited about the idea of picnicking near a lake than photographing the Milky Way, I’m just happy to have a good friend with me.

Everything went as planned.

I had brought my guitar this time instead of my ukulele; I wanted to play this song specifically, and I can’t do that on a ukulele. We situated ourselves back on the lakeside, and I was back into my comfortable state of sitting on a comfortable rock, looking at a comfortable lake, with my comfortable friend and playing/singing comfortable songs.

But as luck would have it, we managed to catch the sunset right as it begun, and everything was pink.

This was by far the most gorgeous sunset I had ever seen. The skies were lit up with the bright pink color, which formed a gradient down into the lake, but then the reflection of the sky was also pink. The scene was just stunning. I think Paige was shooting non-stop for about 20 minutes, both on her Sony A6000 and her iPhone 6.

I grabbed many, many shots on my camera as well, and a couple shots on my Fuji Instax. The instant film, while infamous for its horrendous dynamic range and picture quality, actually captured the scene perfectly: the gradient, the pink, the vignetting.

Finishing off the sunset, I had Paige pose for a picture on the shores while a sail boat passed by in the distance. This remains a shot that I had wanted to create for a while, and I had named it aptly: Sitting, Waiting.

Taken from Jack Johnson’s song Sitting, Waiting, Wishing; I had always felt like I’m still waiting for something in life. Maybe it’s love, maybe it’s the next new mirror-less camera from Sony, maybe it’s just a good friend who understands me deeply. This shot is what I had envisioned for a while now, and I’m really happy I got it, story point + 1.

Bah, emotional stuff, I’ll leave the rest of it for other posts in other categories.

The sun really took a while to set, so after the pink-alypse, we feasted on delicious Gimbap, shame I forgot to take photos of them since we left in such a hurry.

Having fumbled around town looking for a washroom, we went back to the shore, closer to the lighthouse this time.

The skies were dark enough now, and after I wrapped Paige in a blanket, sprayed repellent all over it, and handed her my tablet with Disney’s Brave playing, it’s astro-photography time. I had shot about 20 exposures of various lengths, but none of them were turning out the way I wanted – the light pollution from Niagra Falls was too much, and my original hypothesis of the lakeside having less light pollution was incredibly naive.

While photos of the Milky Way didn’t really turn out that well (as I only have one usable-ish shot), out of curiosity, I decided to do a star trail photo in a single exposure of 15 minutes. I didn’t bring a calculator, nor did I plan on doing photo stacking, but the photo turned out fantastic. The trails are clear, and the lighthouse served well as a focal point of the shot. As soon as I finished, we headed home (the plea of Paige, since she was falling asleep).

Success, and to be continued…?

-Tao