Milky Way over the New River Gorge

[Dave Johnston]

I was back down in the New River Gorge area last week. I was being juried as an accepted artist for Tamarack, a showcase for the best of West Virginia arts and crafts. I was accepted (woohoo!) which means I can submit images to the several exhibitions they have during the year as well as place work in their bins. Based on what other photographers tell me, I don't expect a lot of sales, but but it is nice to have the distinction.

Anyway, after the jury session I went back to Fayetteville and had a nice dinner and a beer, and then decided to go back out to the overlook where I had caught the sunset over the New River Gorge and the old mining town of Thurmond a few weeks ago. There was supposed to be some breaks in the clouds that might provide an opportunity for the Milky Way. I did have some breaks during late twilight when the sky wasn't quite dark, but that also allowed me to shoot a separate, longer shot of the darker ground, to bring out some detail while still looking dusky. This is pretty late in the year for this shot and the Milky Ways is getting too high to capture it as well as the Gorge below in one shot, even at 14 mm. So this is actually a vertical panorama of a shot of the ground merged with one of the sky. I need to go back earlier in the season next year.

Comments and suggestions welcome!

Dave

 

[Ben Egbert]

Looks pretty nice to me. Great job on the merging, I have not yet tried a pano of the MW.

 

[AlanLichty]

Very nice result with your processing - the merging efforts aren't noticeable at all.

Oh yeah - congrats on your accepted artist status.

 

[Bob]

Dave,
This is a nice rendition of the milky way. Don't take this as too critical but the lights on the ground is a real distraction. You might want to consider cloning them out.
Congrats on your artist acceptance.
Bob

 

[JimFox]

Congrats Dave! That’s so cool you got accepted!

What a great view, it’s awesome you got back out there. I actually like the lights on the ground, I think they balance out well and give some additional visual interest. Now normally I wouldn’t, and I would be cloning similar lights out, but for me they work in this image of yours.

 

[Dave Johnston]

Thanks, Ben, Alan, Bob and Jim!

I agree that the lights on the ground are distracting, but they are part of the story. The New River Gorge is no pristine wilderness. It has a long history of mining and timbering, and active railroads still traverse both sides of the river for the entire length of the Gorge. There were many towns along the river, of which Thurmond is one that has been preserved and is part of the National Park's education mission on the history of the area. So while I might seek to show an undisturbed landscape in other areas, this one is about the intersection of nature and human presence and impact.

Dave