TINY BEAUTIFUL STARS BY DAVE LANE

Stars, like tiny diamonds twinkling in the vast sky above us, delight and confound us. They tempt us with their beauty, yet they are often hard to see and even harder to capture in photos.

One reason stars are harder to see now than they were in the past is due to light pollution. They cannot compete with the light emanating from cities and urban sprawl which is now pervasive around the globe. You have to travel far and wide to find dark sky -- skies dark enough to see and photograph stars.

Designated Dark Sky parks are some of the few places to see the magnificence of these tiny beautiful astral lights. There are a number of Dark Sky areas in Scotland that you can visit. And there are some remote places where you can camp out under dark skies.

But if you can’t get to a dark sky place, check out the amazing beauty of stars in photographer Dave Lane’s incredible images. See them in all of their glory below.

DAVE LANE

Photographer Dave Lane celebrates the beauty of the night skies and our galactic neighbors.

While he has always been interested in space, his love of astrophotography actually started in an unusual way, when he was making glass marbles that looked like galaxies. When he researched Hubble telescope photos to confirm colors for his marbles, he noticed that many of the images he found online we actually taken by regular people on the ground.

Though he had no previous photography experience, Lane set out to take photos of the night sky. He set up convertible shingle roof in his home that opened up to enable his telescope access. He began to experiment in different locations to avoid light pollution, traveling around his home state of Kansas, Colorado, and Utah.

Lane learned about deep space photography, which involves amplifying tiny amounts of light. Astrophotography requires specific conditions—no to few clouds, an east to southeast facing vantage point, and no light pollution.

Lane then applied astrophotography techniques to photographing the Milky Way. He calls it “Milky Way fusion”—part astrophotography, part photography, part landscape astrophotography.

Interesting foregrounds, interesting angles, and gorgeous colors are what make Lane’s photos extraordinary.

It takes a lot of skill, patience and time to capture and create Lane’s masterpieces. Lane sometimes travels on 10-14 day road trips over hundreds of miles to find the best locations from which to shoot.

Each photo takes 15-20 hours to process, as he combines and edits over 40 images to make each final work.

If you are inspired to give it a try yourself, check out Lane’s workshops. And if you’d like to grace your walls with Lane’s tiny beautiful stars, purchase his gorgeous aluminum prints here.

Read more about Tiny Beautiful Things in 10 Tiny Beautiful Countries to Visit Now and Tiny Ripples, Moments & Sparks.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Mind/Body, Soul/Impact, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Arts/Design, and Place/Time, Daily Fix posts.

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IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: by Dave Lane. “YS Lake Flat.”
2. Image: by Dave Lane. “First Church.”
3. Image: by Dave Lane. “Pockmark.”
4. Image: by Dave Lane. “Delicate Arch with Light Painting and a Blazing Milky Way.”
5. Image: by Dave Lane. “Homage.”
6. Image: by Dave Lane. “Dead Horse Point, Utah.”
7. Image: by Dave Lane. The Milky Way over Yellowstone.
8. Image: by Dave Lane. “Toroweap.”
9. Image: by Dave Lane. “Cottonwood.”
10. Image: by Dave Lane. “Natural.”