"This shot came from a recent adventure of shooting for personal fulfillment before weddings begin again. It was a weeknight, a school night for that fact. I had a friend and fellow photographer, Grant Watkins (Grant Watkins Photography), send me a message about wanting to go out and shoot long exposure star trails and my instant reply was, "heck yeah dude!" With college, paid shoots, part time job at a local restaurant, and everything in-between, a midnight adventure was just the cure I needed.
Another friend, local landscape photographer and commercial videographer with extraordinary talent, Colin MacMillan (macmillanworks), led us to this location. This vintage bus is parked and abandoned on top of a hill in the middle of a field outside the Wamego/Manhattan area, in Kansas. It was near pitch black outside, driving mile after mile down a dirt road in an area neither of us had never been before. We soon spotted a shape on top of a hill and knew we had found it. I grabbed my gear and headed up to the bus.
I setup my old, but sturdy tripod, camera and wireless trigger release. The wind was constant, howling 20-30+mph with no trees, or landscape to stop it. After several test shots, streaks of clouds moved in. I moved closer for a wide angle shot and began my exposure. Using a Canon 600 EX-RT flash, I popped the flash around the bus, inside the bus, and a few on the ground to see the detail in the life of this bus. The clouds left soft streaks, several stars, and the orange in the sky is a glow from a nearby town. When I viewed this frame in camera, it was exactly what I was going for." -Josh Hicks
EXIF:
Canon 5D Mark III
17mm
ISO: 400
f/14
3 minute exposure - 12 a.m. at night
Canon 600 EX-RT flash, off camera