I have been in and out of photography for quite some time now.  I have the bug again.  Unsuspecting it was again in front of me, I took out my digital camera to see what it had in it ... wanting to experiment again.  I had been using it for several months for casual photos but not for what I consider photography.  Knowing all along it was a great camera, but not really using it.  Not thinking much of it, I grabbed a cocktail and hit the shutter and aperture limit (*) for my camera and headed our for night photography to see what was going to happen.

I had been up North during the last full moon and planned my next trip for the New Moon, August 19th'ish.  It's always awesome to see the Milky Way.  Awesome is overused but it does describe the Milky Way.  You know it when you see it.  I have seen it as clear as can be more in the last two years than I have in all my years prior.  My photos don't do it justice but they are much better than I thought were possible with a novice photographer using an entry level digital camera.  A little time, a little effort and a little booze.  Not bad.

My analog camera body is in a backpack somewhere in my closet.  I can't remember the last time I used it but I remember the time I used it best.  I was photographing star trails with 30min to 1hr shutter speed.  I thought that was the greatest thing.  I used a shitty tripod and rigged it to a carabiner to a rope to a rock for stability.  Oh, and some duct tape, somewhere.  I don't remember the film I used or the settings at this point but the results were awesome.  What I captured on film was one thing, what I gained from the experience was much greater.  In my years since, I have not been able to recreate that experience.  Somehow, I was taken back to that time.  A time of maximum creativity.  There can't be that much time in between anymore.  Time is too precious.

*Unedited image --> Exposure time: 15"; Aperture f/2.8; ISO 800; 20090819 22:32:47