My July Star Trail journey took me to Missouri. I had planned on shooting at Apple River in Illinois, but the weather worked out better for me to shoot a bit further south in order to get around some scattered thunderstorms in northwest Illinois.
Unfortunately, the rain we’ve had washed out my camp site, so I had to scramble to find a new place for my tent. I ultimately ended up at another tent site along the Mississippi in Hannibal, MO. This town’s claim to fame is that it was the home of Mark Twain and was used as the setting for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The cave system featured in the novel has now been renamed to The Mark Twain Caves and they have a relatively affordable camp ground in the cave system park.
I climbed atop the cave system to setup my tripod and shoot this star trail through till dawn. Unfortunately, any attempt to turn on a light while setting up my tripod and rig resulted in an assault of hungry mosquitoes. The rains have created the right conditions for them to breed – lots of standing water. As such, I rushed the setup of my tripod and the highlighting of the background with my lumecube.
I loved how the mass of fireflies added up to a nice glow strewn foreground in this shot. I didn’t plan for it, but as Bob Ross said, art is full of happy accidents.