Stormy October Night in Bodie

A snowy October Milky Way shoot in Bodie State Historic Park.

I’ve shot in Bodie at night nearly 40 times. The Bodie workshop season typically runs late May through mid-October when any storms tend to be convention-driven from daytime heat. So even on stormy days, the sky usually clears up at night. This time, in early October, a light storm not driven by daytime heat moved through, at first driving broken clouds to move through our shots of the Milky Way, then thickening to create trails of uneven clouds back-lit by green airglow.

 The Milky Way was mostly out for the first hour, then coming and going with streaks of clouds for about an hour, then then the clouds were translucent with intermittent snow showers. The snow never stuck to the ground much, but it was cool to have streaking through our shots. Fortunately everyone else was really into it too It was chilly with the wind blowing, but every shot was different, so we worked fast, and right through the end, when we could barely get out by the time our permit expired!

I’ve posted my draft 2019 Bodie / Eastern Sierra workshop dates on my Eastern Sierra Photography Workshop page. Follow the contact instructions there to get on my list for notification when I release the workshops for registration soon!

One participant decided to leave in case the snow showers became more intense. His red brake lights were reflecting off of the low clouds above.