Looking Back in Time – Quitaque, TX

One of my wife Sara’s favorite things to do is go outside and look at the stars. The timing was absolutely perfect one chilly winter’s night. There was a new moon, and the sky was as vast as the ocean and as black as coal. It was literally the middle of the night, so no chance of the sun coming up or having any light left from the setting sun. We picked up my brother and decided to take a little road trip to the middle of nowhere. Why the middle of nowhere? We wanted to find a spot with as little light pollution as possible. We found the perfect “middle of nowhere location” on a little backcountry, dirt road in between Silverton and Quitaque, Texas. Even though we were originally just going to look at the stars, I never want to miss an opportunity to take an awesome picture. So naturally I had my equipment in the back seat. When we finally picked the perfect location, we pulled over to the side of the road and got out of the car. It was an incredibly beautiful sight. In the crisp winter’s night you could not only see your breath, but also you could see millions of stars. Sara was having a blast pointing out different constellations, and the sky was so clear you could even see the Milky Way. After a while I decided to set up my camera equipment to capture the moment. By this time Sara was a popsicle and decided to get back in the car, but Ricky and I stuck it out. I wanted to take a picture with more than just the stars so I decided to light paint Ricky in with a flashlight. The shutter on the camera was open for about thirty seconds, so he had to stand as still as a statue which was hard because it was so cold! In the end we snagged this stunning shot. To this day it is one of my favorites because it reminds me that somebody once told me, “if you gaze at the stars, it is like looking back in time.”