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It is “Milky Way” season again. The best time to view and photograph the “center” of the universe is from around the beginning of May through the end of October. I really like photographing the night sky and the Milky Way, especially with a great foreground object. During my recent trip the southwest, mainly Utah, Arches NP and Canyonlands NP were my main focus for the evening or morning shoots. The moon set around midnight to 2 a.m. on the days we were there which allowed several hours of great shooting.

I used the Tamron SP 15-30mm f2.8 Di VC USD lens for all of my night sky images. I have come to refer to it as “the Milky Way Slayer”, because as one of my fellow shooters kept saying, it was killing it. Using the Tamron SP 15-30mm f2.8 Di VC USD lens on a Canon 5Diii made for some great hi resolution, low noise images. The lens allowed it to capture tack sharp stars and sharp edged foreground objects as well. On the lens, my setup was simply to turn off the VC since I was doing a long exposure on a tripod, set the lens to manual focus and on the infinity mark. It seems that right in the center of the mark is best.

On my camera all the images were shot at ISO 3200, Manual Exposure mode, 30 seconds, and f2.8. I occasionally shot at f4 but rarely. I shot on a tripod and used a cable release to minimize any shake. I didn’t do any light painting but with the shot of Mesa Arch there was a little light from my fellow photographer’s phone for a few brief seconds. I did lighten up the shadow area of the shot of Mesa Arch as well. In Lightroom I simply kicked up the Vibrance, set my WB to about 3400K, moved up the Contrast and Noise Reduction and lastly moved the Dehaze slider to about +25.

To me, I have found the perfect lens for shooting the night sky, it is the Milky Way Slayer, I mean the Tamron SP 15-30mm f2.8 Di VC USD lens. If you like shooting the night sky or any wide angle landscape, this is the lens for you. Give Joel a call up at Camera Land and get your lens ordered today. As always mention you are a member of the Campfire for the best pricing available on all of your photography needs.