This shot actually almost didn’t exist. I went up to this cliff a little before sunset and found an absolutely breathtaking view. But it was very cloudy, which is fine during the day, but for an astrophotography photo you don’t want any clouds because otherwise you can’t see the stars or the galaxy. So after enjoying the view I hiked back down to my camp thinking “I’ll try again tomorrow night.” This was my first experience night hiking and I hated it. It felt so dangerous not being able to see nearly as well as during the day, climbing down rocks and crossing streams to get back to my tent with just a dim headlamp on. Every sound I heard was a bear, I swear! But after about 40 minutes I made it back to my tent. And after a while of laying down and not getting any sleep I could start to see the stars come out through the mosquito net. I was like “you gotta be kidding me!” So I got out of my tent, set up my GorillaPod and snapped a photo through the trees and sure enough the stars were out in abundance! So I filled up my water at the stream, crossed it and headed back up to the cliff. Shooting the stars with this composition was literally the only reason I drove six and a half hours and almost 300 miles, so not hiking back up in the dark was just not an option. But by the time I got to the cliff it was all worth it and I spent the next 3 hours shooting the Milky Way and ended up with this photo.
