I was always the one in my friend group who brought along a disposable camera or my tiny Nikon Coolpix to our gatherings. In 2018, I bought my first DSLR (a used Canon Rebel) and started taking it along on my hikes in Arkansas. Light pollution is relatively low in Arkansas, which makes it a great place to photograph the Milky Way. This type of photography is seriously challenging— hiking and setting up in the dark, trying to focus on tiny pinpricks of light in the distance— but when it all comes together, it’s seriously rewarding.

I now shoot with a Sony a7ii, which is what I used to capture all of the nighttime images below. Please enjoy these photos and feel free to share (with credit).