Day 282: 5,261

365/282: 5,261, originally uploaded by riekhavoc.

When I set out to do a 365 project, this is one of the photos I had in mind. I guess it was in part to make up for the last time I tried to take this photo. That time, I made a huge mistake - I left the lens cap on! So, after three hours of waiting for the photo, I came to see what happened, and discovered the lens cap.

I thought I'd try it last night/this morning, because we're in Charlottesville for a wedding, and it was very dark, and very clear and the air was still. Perfect for this shot. And this time, I remembered to take the lens cap off! The shot isn't perfect. I wish we could see the north star so the stars would rotate more, but we couldn't find a horizon that let us do that. I wish the composition of the trees was better, or that it was pointed more at the sky and just got a bit of trees. I wish the lines didn't have that weird lip at the begining (I have no idea how that happened).

But, for a first real try, I am really proud of this shot. It took 5,261 seconds, a lot of trial shots, and a very patient boyfriend to make it work. Hopefully I'll get to try again in the future!

Oh, and I have no idea what day this photo counts as. I started it at 11pm on Saturday, and turned the shutter off at 12:30am on Sunday. I'm going to call it Saturday's shot, but what do you think?