The Story Behind Milky Way Falls
Planning and shooting the Milky Way over a waterfall with autumn colors!
Back in 2013, we we didn’t have no stinkin’ apps that let you plan Milky Way shots easily on satellite maps like you can with PhotoPills these days!
It was all about knowing the heading of the Galactic Center by using a star chart, whether an actual chart or an app like Star Walk, and then looking at satellite view in Google Maps and determining if the angle of the Milky Way would line up at some point in the night with my desired foreground subject.
Even better, standing at the actual location I could use my compass and determine when the Milky Way would line up in the night by comparing the heading of my foreground object with the time that the Milky Way would be at that angle using the star chart.
That has since been largely replaced with planning apps like PhotoPills, an iOS or Android app that lets me plan Milky Way shots, and the Night Augmented Reality mode lets me see the angle of the Milky Way at any time and date overlaid on the live view of my iPhone’s camera.
Ok, back to this autumn waterfall shot!
I did the planning the old fashioned way and knew that the Milky Way wouldn’t line up at this point until pretty late in the night, but it wasn’t clear exactly when, since I couldn’t see exactly where I would be standing on the satellite map. So I showed up early in the night and used my compass to figure out roughly when the Milky Way would be in position. I had plenty of time to setup my foreground and get everything figured out.
Turns out it was a good thing I had so much time to figure everything out, because getting a brightly exposed foreground shot was challenging. I was used to doing foreground shots of a few minutes or so to capture enough light in the dark, but looking into a gorge with no ambient light it was DARK! A 5 minute exposure wasn’t going to cut it. I tried light painting the gorge with a flashlight but it looked horrible, far too much glare on the wet rocks and weird shadows cast by the flashlight. It just didn’t look good, and to this day I rarely use light painting for the same reasons. So in the end I used a 20 minute exposure for the foreground, which worked out great!
The problem, though, was that my lens would fog up after a few minutes. This happens when the dew point reaches the ambient temperature, and means water droplets are much more likely to form on surfaces, and it turns out that the large front elements of wide angle lenses like the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 are the perfect surfaces. This was before I had my electric lens heaters, so in a pinch I used some Little Hotties hand warmers in a wool sock. I wrapped the sock around the lens and it worked! The lens was kept warm enough to prevent dew from forming on the front element. These days I have an electric heater from Move Shoot Move that plugs into any USB battery pack, like the Anker 10000.
Nikon D800E with NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8 lens @ 14mm and f/2.8. This was before I knew about star stacking, so the sky is from a 25 second shot at ISO 3200. Today I use star stacking, a method for capturing pinpoint stars and processing the images to get very low noise. The foreground is from a 20 minute shot at ISO 1600. Both shots were taken on the same night in the same spot, without moving the tripod. They were prepped in Lightroom and blended in Photoshop to create an image that is well exposed, sharp, and with low noise from the foreground to the stars.
Join my Maine Milky Way workshops to learn how all this is done!
2026 Maine Milky Way Workshops
Join me under the stars on my 2026 Maine Milky Way workshops! These are all held in Lubec, Maine, 2 hours east of Acadia National Park.
Jul 14-17 (3 nights)
Aug 11-14 (3 nights)
Sep 8-11 (3 nights)
Come explore the Bold Coast of Maine! These workshops focus on Milky Way photography but we will also capture dramatic sunsets with rugged coastline, lighthouses, and lobster boats as our foreground. There are also opportunities to photograph wildlife including bald eagles, seals, porpoise, and whales.
You’ll get 10% off lodging as part of the workshop.
I’m holding my first ever winter workshops! These are also held in Lubec, Maine, 2 hours east of Acadia National Park.
Very Late Season Milky Way & Maybe Winter Landscapes
Dec 12-15, 2025 (3 nights)
For this workshop the Milky Way Galactic Core will not be fully visible but we will be able to get the fainter part over West Quoddy Head Lighthouse. We will also focus on other daytime landscapes. See the workshop page.
Jan 12-15, 2026 (3 nights)
Feb 11-14, 2026 (3 nights)
The Jan/Feb workshops are my first ever fully winter workshops where we will focus on lighthouses, landscapes, and fishing boats. Hopefully we will have snow and sea smoke! This is for hearty folks who can stand being out in the cold! Dress warm! See the workshop page.
2026 Newfoundland Iceberg Workshops!
I only have one spot left on each of my May 2026 Newfoundland workshops!
Join me for the adventure of a lifetime on the Canadian island of Newfoundland during peak iceberg season. Each spring icebergs from Greenland and Labrador show up along the northern coast of Newfoundland after making the two year journey. We’ll also photograph dramatic landscapes, iconic fishing villages, puffins, and more.
I have two different workshops scheduled:
Twillingate - Fogo Island - Bonavista
May 25 - June 1, 2026 (7 nights, 8 days)
5 spots total, 1 spot remaining
This workshop will start in Twillingate, one of the regular hot spots for icebergs in Newfoundland. We’ll then spend a couple nights on Fogo Island capturing more icebergs and iconic red fishing sheds, then head over to Bonavista for a lighthouse, icebergs, and puffins that can be photographed from land!
Learn more here!
Iceberg Chaser RV Trip
May 11 - 18, 2026 (7 nights, 8 days)
3 spots total, 1 spots remaining
For the truly adventurous, follow me around in your own RV or rent one! We’ll have an open schedule and go wherever the best icebergs are and catch some amazing landscapes. We will likely visit the Great Northern Peninsula, Gros Morne National Park, and probably Twillingate or other spots on the north coast. Maybe we’ll even head over to Labrador for a night or visit the massive gannet colony in Cape St. Mary’s!
Learn more here!
Night Sky Photography Book
My book Night Sky Photography: From First Principles to Professional Results is an Amazon best-seller and has almost 500 ratings! Thanks everyone!
Free Milky Way Crash Course Webinar
My free Milky Way Crash Course webinar is back up for viewing! Many of you have seen this already, but if you haven’t it can get you up and running with Milky Way photography pretty quickly. It covers camera gear, camera settings, shooting with stacking and exposure blending in mind, and planning basics.