Well not really beyond.

A friend and I were camping in the Sleeping Bear National Park earlier this month specifically to spend as many nights as possible shooting the stars in that big beautiful dark sky country.

But let’s be honest, I took a lot of other pictures too. After all, what does a photographer do all day while waiting for it to get true dark?

Well, we sat in camp a bit. And cooked lovely meals.

We enjoyed the campfire in the cool evenings.

And we got a little shuteye as we waited for the Milky Way to rise.

Of course we also went on a hike or two through the countryside, enjoying the newly greening forest…

…and the wildflowers pushing up from a long winter nap.

There’s plenty to do while you’re waiting for the stars to come out.

I haven’t even begun to process the images of the old barns and the orchards in bloom that we saw. And I still have seven stacks of star images to process.

So there’s going to be plenty to share once I get all the work done.

But it’s going to take awhile.