Sometimes, it doesn’t go as planned

When photographing the Milky Way, the weather is often foremost on your mind. Because of course, it is really hard to photograph the stars if they are behind clouds. When the skies are changing, you hope for that magic moment where all of the clouds blow away just at the right time for that perfect shot.

This night was like that. The skies started out clear, and I eagerly captured the foreground of my composition during blue hour, where everything takes on a cool, soft quality. But as I nervously monitored the sky, thin wisps of cloud were arriving. Hope was running out. It would be overcast by full dark. Time to pack up?

This was a defining moment for me as an artist. I was here to shoot the Milky Way, and I almost didn’t see what was before me. The Milky Way, including the Dark Horse herself, was still visible, but seen through a torn veil.

I made my decision. I would use the clouds that Nature had gifted me. I would allow that uninvited participant to play, but I had to act now and capture that single image of the sky while it was still blue hour. I could not wait for dark.

This image of clouds framing the Milky Way serves as a reminder to me that we live on a fragile planet, with nothing but a thin sheath of air separating us from the Cosmos.