More night fun

We've finally had a "cool front" or two roll through the midwest to relax the heat and humidity over the area and I've been taking advantage by getting out and enjoying the night sky. We've hit rock bottom as far as thunderstorm activity goes locally, so night photography, which is usually what gets me through the boring winter months, has been my go to activity.

I'm not a big fan of the terrain and lack of abundant photo foregrounds in the immediate Champaign area so I've continued visiting the old high school favorites. There's a clearing in a corn field with a couple silos and an old red shed on a hill north of the railroad crossing near Block, IL that I frequented over the winter that I decided to visit a couple of nights ago. The view from the spot is among my favorites. The photos below won't convey it, likely due in part to the super wide 10 mm shot, but you can see for miles and miles on the western horizon. The 'views' in central Illinois are few and far between, so I've grown to love this spot. Like the little valley that the railroad crossing south of Block sits on, the hill is there as a result of the glaciers depositing rocks and boulders in mounds known as moraines.




Last night I was feeling antsy again, so the abandoned house that I found back around age 16 that I revisited last winter came to mind. I still want to shoot a star trail time lapse there, and yet again I didn't accomplish that. However, I was happy with the star filled sky coupled with moonlit foreground shot that I came away with.



And finally, this was a hastily composed shot on my way back from Sidney the other night. The shot isn't very impressive, but it wreaks of nostalgia. My friend David Bellmore and I frequented this spot on 1100 North when we were little pubescent kids wasting film.