Peaceful Night
Quabbin Reservoir, New Salem, MA
This is an image I've been wanting to capture for sometime. I'm looking south on one of my favorite stretches of shoreline in the Quabbin Reservoir. I knew I could expect the Milky Way to be there on a clear night I just needed to figure out the time of night. This time of year 2:30am works. As seems to always be the case, I scouted this spot and comp a few days earlier and found this lone rock off the shore that I could walk to without getting that wet (when I scouted it-that is). On this particular morning there were a few challenges. One, the water level was higher than when I had scouted it so I had to splash through the water to get to my rock. Two, the temperatures were colder than I expected so standing there soaking wet for 30 seconds with each attempt was a bit challenging. Three, the cold temps (32 dgrees) caused surface fog that rolled in off the water and covered my lens with condensation every few attempts. I'm sure there was a moose or cyote off in the woods laughing there ass off at me but It was well worth the frozen fingers and toes!!! Photo © copyright by Patrick Zephyr.