Penticton Indian Band, British Columbia
This was the result from the second night I brought my camera out, roughly 45 minutes, with light being casted on the hill from Penticton. Once I realized I wouldn't be working with totally ideal dark sky my challenge became figuring out how to use the light pollution to my advantage, and light painting in a way.
Penticton Indian Band, British Columbia.
The longest star trail exposure I've done so far, roughly an hour and forty-five minutes, picking up light pollution from the city of Penticton, headlights from a road to the north, and from the airport to the south of where I was. I'm still pretty impressed by how it all came together. It's interesting to see how different the sky looks at night depending on when I start my exposures, this is the second time it came out with a purple tone to it, even after working in post.
Penticton Indian Band, British Columbia.
Moving on to shorter exposures, I found a few spots on Band land that stood out to me for one reason or another. The first time I saw these two trees the way the light hit em was cool to me, and I tried to capture that here.
Penticton, British Columbia.
Penticton to the left, and Highway 97 towards Osoyoos, wrapping around Skaha Lake on the right. The light in the foreground is Skaha Hills, a housing development that the Penticton Indian Band is working on. This was one of the neatest views at night during my whole trip in my opinion.
Penticton Indian Band, British Columbia.
This is the now former Boonstock grounds. Heard a lot of interesting opinions on the music festival while I spent time reporting in Penticton. Everything from bring it back, to good riddance. I never attended, I can't say if it's good one way or the other. Full moon setting over the valley, and the airport off in the distance. This was one of the first spots I checked out with my cousins while I spent time in Penticton, but one of the last spots I decided to shoot there.
I hiked up the trail so quickly trying to get some nice shots during magic hour, but the real interest to me was the stars. They took ages to show up, and once they did I realized I was battling against the rising full moon, and the light pollution cast off by the setting sun. While it turned into an interesting photograph, I'll certainly be back here for a moonless night.
Spenser took me to these falls on our way home from Tofino, I've seen them before I'm pretty sure but I was really young, and didn't have a camera. Even now, it was either my 50mm or my fisheye, which dwarfed the falls too much for my liking. 17-40 is probably ideal based off what the shot looked like on Spenser's 18-55! Technicalities aside, if you're on the island you have to check this spot out. Day or night, it's a gorgeous set of falls.
Green Mountain Road, Penticton Indian Band.
This was my last night in Penticton, and one of the few times I was out alone while making these photos. It was a little bit freaky at first! These S curves were fun to drive, had a pretty scenic creek beside them, and gave a pretty cool view of the dipper at night. I just wish I wasn't shooting against a waning moon, just another example of take the shot when you've got it in mind...
Shooting stars and shooting at night is turning into a new creative outlet for me, and has been ever since I started messing around with longer exposures in Saskatchewan. I'm glad I got a chance to shoot some pretty interesting night skies in BC, it just made me excited for the possibilities ahead this year in my free time.
I didn't get too many more chances after these to make dark sky photos, I was up against a wide variety of weather on my trek back to Belleville. Mostly clouds at night, and when it wasn't fully cloudy it was broken clouds. Banff would have been real swell to shoot a few of these, but I'll be back soon enough to get em done. I've got two blogs left about the month and a half I spent in BC and on the road. One to go up in the next day or two, so keep your eyes open!!
