Skies Surround Us

About

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I live about a half-hour bike ride from the only freshwater lake in the Great Basin, one that some travelers called Sweetwater Lake. For over a decade I've called this oasis in the mountains home. It is dear to me & full of dear ones. I guess these photos are an expression of awe at the daily beauty of this sky, this land. While some photos are taken while visiting family, the majority are taken here at home mostly from the mountainside facing the lake where I like to be at dawn and dusk. The lake shores have been home to many peoples, including the Timpanogos people who were killed and displaced 100 miles east by colonizers in the mid XVIII Century.

Someone lays in a hammock looking at the night sky which has a pink aurora swash in it
Out in Utah desert stargazing and hoping for dancing aurora lights (wasn't disappointed)

I think I’ve always been drawn to the sky. I’ve been told that bird/pájaro & plane/avión were the first words I said (if this is true, then I think the next word could have been chocolate). Apparently, my eyes were often turned up to the sky, & they still are.

someone looks up at the stars at the salt flats, clouds lit yellow behind
A strange place, the salt flats

I use a Sony a6400 usually with the 18-50mm kit lens. For astrophotography I use a 12mm f2 lens, & then I also use a 55-220mm lens when I want to get closer in to things. My first camera was the a6300 which sadly took a serious hit when the tripod tipped in the wind one night. I tried the full-frame Sony a7RIII for some months, and although a lovely camera, I missed my compact crop-sensor. I also have a Canon 90D with a 24mm f1.4 lens which I'd like to use for astrophotography once I get it fixed. I did try a friend's Fujifilm X-T2 recently, a fun shooting experience.

I am still figuring out how to process & edit photos. What I have done for some years is shoot raw then process with RawTherapee within a day or two so I can remember how I saw, the feeling of it. (Before that, I used Lightroom—good tool, but prefer open-source.)

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