Less than ten years ago (as I type this), I first walked down an unfamiliar Adirondack road in complete darkness, worried about bears hiding in the bushes every step of the way, until I got to the lake. Earlier that week, I had read some tutorials on astrophotography, and thought I'd give it a try. I set up my camera and tripod, and started naively snapping timed shots aimed up at the night sky...
The first shot of the night was out across the lake. It was pitch black, but I recalled that the tutorials said stars always looked better on the camera screen. The long exposure shutter closed with a click, and I looked at the camera's glowing LCD screen... And my life changed.
I don't think I had wrapped my mind around just HOW MANY stars were out there, and what the Milky Way could look like with proper equipment capturing it (instead of my mere flesh-based eyeballs). The cloud bank across the lake gave the galaxy a bit of a mysterious shroud, and as an extra surprise, the temperature difference between air and water caused some flowing foggy mist to perfectly mirror the sea of stars.
This image isn't just a pretty photo of a lake and stars; it's a core memory for me, a life experience. That night, looking at the raw version of this shot on the camera screen, I knew that I had found yet another lifetime hobby that was previously hidden from me, just as the photons from countless stars and galaxies were hidden from my optic nerve until I found the right tool to reveal them. There would be no going back, and astrophotography has been core to my experience of the world ever since.
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**Artist:** Steve Walasavage
**Series:** This And That
**Collection:** Non-Fungible Travels
**Edition:** 1/1 NFT
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*"Non-Fungible Travels"* is a collection of photographs taken all over the world during my travels over the years. Each one is a specific moment in time and piece of my soul, and none of them are repeatable or interchangeable.
All images in this collection are ERC-721 tokens minted on the [Non-Fungible Travels](https://etherscan.io/address/0x8c4cc45E2839F2F35ad10B985062d63E963cB46f) custom smart contract.
Extended Editorial License: Can be used to display privately, or in commercial and non-commercial settings, or in groups with an unlimited number of participants. The License includes unlimited use and display in virtual or physical galleries, documentaries, and essays by the NFT holder. Provides no rights to create commercial merchandise, commercial distribution, or derivative works.
