Page 82 of With Stars in Her Eyes
Thea gave an amused sniff and gestured me back out of the camp chair.
Night arrived more quickly than I had expected. Maybe it was because of the amount of time I had spent laughing over the last hour.
“I’m surprised this place stays open after dark.”
Thea nodded as she set up a different tripod. She fiddled with the screws and checked angles. “Camping isn’t allowed, but a lot of photographers and stargazers come here since there isn’t a lot of light pollution.”
“You said you’re trying to get the Milky Way?”
“Yep. The Milky Way over the rock formation.”
“Not star trails tonight?”
“I’m not sure that will be possible. Those exposures need to be pretty long and if there’s too much moisture in the air it can mess with the lens. We’ll see what’s possible. I have a meter I can use to check.”
“Can you put people in a star trails photo?”
“It’s tricky because they’d basically have to sit in one spot for a long time. There’s a couple ways to do star trails with a digital camera that makes it easier though, or using a composite.”
“Sitting a long time kind of sounds like getting your portrait painted in the olden days.”
“Basically.” Thea checked a few pieces of equipment then looked back at me, her expression thoughtful. “Hmm…”
“Hmm…”
“Want to try?”
“Try?”
“A lot of photography is trial and error. I think if I put a small light on you, it might not disrupt the background of the shot. Your face would be out of focus, but… we could try?”
“I don’t want to mess up an otherwise cool photo by being in it though.”
“That won’t happen.”
“So, I would just sit there?”
“Only if you want to.”
“I want to try.”
Thea smiled at me and then bent to dig through her bag. “Fucking Marshall.”
“What’d Marshall do?”
Thea pulled out a book from her camera bag. “He lost his copy of this and then dog-eared my copy before the book club. He came with me the last time I went out to shoot at night and must’ve stuck it in my bag when we were packing up.”
“Dog-earing someone else’s book is basically a bookish felony.”
“I agree.” Thea grabbed a different lens out of her bag and put the book on the edge of her trunk.
“So where should I sit?”
After a few minutes of figuring out angles and lighting, Thea put me on a blanket on the ground about ten feet away from her. It was still cold enough that I wasn’t super worried about bugs or snakes, but I felt apprehensive this far away from Thea in the dark.
“Think you could sit there for an hour and a half?”
“Probably, but you have to entertain me.”
