Meteor and Milky Way : Michael Frye Photography

Each August the Perseids meteor bathe places on a present, however some years it’s higher than others. This 12 months the Perseids peak occurred throughout a brand new moon, with darkish skies – good timing.

That peak additionally coincided with some attention-grabbing climate within the Yosemite excessive nation, so Claudia and I spent a few nights within the Tuolumne Meadows campground photographing climate and night time skies.

For the meteor bathe we frolicked alongside a lakeshore, wanting towards the Milky Way, hoping a shiny meteor would possibly seem in the precise spot. We weren’t wanting towards the radiant for the meteor bathe – the place the place the meteors appear to emanate from, on this case the Perseus constellation. While you’re prone to see extra meteors wanting towards the radiant, the streaks shall be shorter, because the meteors fall straight down towards you, fairly than going throughout the sky. So we opted to look towards the Milky Way, virtually instantly reverse the radiant. We knew we’d see fewer meteors, however the ones we’d see would have longer streaks. I simply wanted one in the precise spot.

It was a pleasing night – not too chilly, regardless that we have been sitting at over 8,000 toes. We noticed a number of meteors, however none in precisely the precise place for my composition. Finally, nevertheless, simply after 11:00 p.m., a shiny meteor sliced down proper via the guts of the Milky Way – as you’ll be able to see within the {photograph} above. I couldn’t have positioned it higher.

So I bought fortunate, however even when I hadn’t, I loved simply hanging out, wanting on the stars and meteors. I’ll take that any time.

— Michael Frye

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Michael Frye is an expert photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He lives close to Yosemite National Park in California, however travels extensively to {photograph} pure landscapes within the American West and all through the world.

Michael makes use of gentle, climate, and design to make pictures that seize the temper of the panorama, and convey the sweetness, energy, and thriller of nature. His work has acquired quite a few awards, together with the North American Nature Photography Association’s 2023 award for Fine Art in Nature Photography. Michael’s pictures have appeared in publications world wide, and he’s the writer and/or principal photographer of a number of books, together with Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, and The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite.

Michael likes to share his data of images via articles, books, workshops, on-line programs, and his weblog. He’s taught over 200 workshops centered on panorama images, night time images, digital picture processing, and printing.