So I spent a good part of today perfecting one of the handful of panoramas I took while I was in Australia. 

I do very few panoramas. This is because I am a perfectionist when it comes to editing, and when it takes me hours to edit a normal size photo, having to perfect and stitch together a super massive photo doesn't sound appealing. Nevertheless, I spent 5 good hours putting this one together. 

This bad boy came out to 67 megapixels. Which means if I printed out at full resolution it would be 8 foot wide. So I am thinking that I want to start printing these photos out, since I spend so much time creating them, both travel time around the world and editing time behind the computer. 

What I was thinking is selling every Pic of the Day only twice. So I would print one copy for myself, and one copy to sell, and then retire the image from print. I am just playing with the idea but I would like some feedback on what you all think. That is, if there is anyone out there even reading or that would be interested. It is a tough, over saturated, business that is nearly impossible to make a living at, but it's what I love, and feel called to do. So I really want to find a way to be able to support myself and my family, and keep doing what I love

Anyways, I hope you enjoy todays image and feel free to comment below, hit me up on social media, or just email me at Andrew@Newtography.com with your feedback on the exclusive print idea. 

Thanks for everyone who takes time out of their day to come by and check out the photos, I truly appreciate it and it is what keeps me shooting even if their is no money involved. Love you all. 

:)  - Andrew

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I recently visited a friend in Louisville for her birthday, on my way to Minneapolis for work. After the celebrations, I set out to get some star trail shots of the city.

I shot two trails that night, one from the north side of the river in Indiana, looking at the downtown skyline, with the crossing southern sky and airplanes buzzing about. The other from the south side of the river, of the northern sky with polaris above their landmark bridge. 

I'm not sure which I like better. The one of the city has a pretty busy and unattractive sky, and the one shot from in the city has a much better sky. I considered blending the two images and putting the north sky in the south facing shot, but I don't like manipulating scenes that much. Only to make a photo look better, not to misrepresent the actual scene. 

So I will post both and see what you all think should be todays pic of the day. Write in the comments below which you like better North Star/Sky or South Sky. Or should I combine the two? :)

P.S. Btw these were the first two images I created on my new retina macbook. So if they look extra snazzy, thats why :)

Here is a quick snap from a hike last fall in Cloudland Canyon with my wife.

Hope you enjoy :)

On my last trip up to Washington DC for work, I left on a thursday afternoon. My shift started at 11am on Friday, and it's a ten hour drive. I usually have hotels pre booked for me, but I hadn't been informed where my hotel was, and I didn't ask. I figured I could set up somewhere and get a decent star trail that night since it was only a couple days before the time was about to change, which would be ending my early night sky shooting until the fall. 

I made my way up through Virginia, using my various apps to determine what direction would have the least amount of cloud cover and one of the darker night skies. I found a general area around along the blue ridge parkway and started scouting out locations. Now, since it was almost a full moon, I knew I would not be getting any milky way shots, but, if I could find a dead tree or something with nice textures, I knew that the moonlight moving across it would make for a good time lapse to add to my archive. 

So that's what I began looking for. After about an hour of scouting out spots, I found a decent location with a tree that one of the branches had fallen off. I took my camera down (getting injured along the way :/ ) and set it up to start shooting. I then went back up to my car, laid the passenger seat all the way down into the back seat, and laid out my bed for the night. I fell asleep bleeding all over my sleeping bag from an injury I got fumbling around in the dark. 

I woke up a few hours later tossing and turning as I normally do and looked up through the sunroof glass to see complete overcast clouds. Angry and tired, I went and picked up my camera, put it in the back, and proceeded to leave Shenandoah National park before they opened for the day so I wouldn't have to pay.  (Can you spot my car in this photo? ;)

I drove an hour or so to a truck stop and went back to sleep until the morning, then continued on to DC. Upon returning home I processed the star trail image and time lapse video. I was pleased with what I got, even though I had to cut out 100 frames from the star trail that had clouds obscuring the view.

So I hope you enjoy this image as todays Pic of the Day and the quick time lapse that will show up in my feature length time lapse movie in the future :)

Watch in HD to see the stars

So I finally got my hands on a laptop so that I won't be absent from my interweb soul when I am traveling. Which means, I can do Pics of the Day again. So from now on I vow to post a picture every single day for the rest of my life :) We will see how long I can keep that promise ;)

Todays Pic of the day is brought to you from the streets of Sydney Harbour. Walking past this spot and looking down, I was not able to go down these stairs without stopping to get a shot. I miss that beautiful city and editing the pics from that trip takes me back there and brings a warm Aussie smile to my face. 

Hope you enjoy :)