Fall Colors + Astrophotography Time-Lapse at Brasstown Bald

Last Wednesday I took a quick break from editing wedding photos and headed up to the North Georgia mountains to soak up the Fall colors and check out the New Moon which was happening that night. The drive up there was gorgeous and I really wish we did this last year, but I think just with work and Betty being pregnant at the time it just didn’t work out until after the leaves had fallen.

I didn’t stop much on the way to Brasstown Bald, mainly because I decided to leave later in the day as opposed to spending all afternoon up North. This had the benefit of allowing me to get some more work done at home, and keeping me a bit more rested for the night! I did end up pulling off the road to see Helton Creek Falls which was a pretty neat multiple cascade waterfall tucked down this small little side road.

The first photo is a shot of the lower falls, and this photo above is a Tilt-Shift photograph of the upper falls. On the walk to the upper falls I did stop along the path to grab this next photo with my camera:

As the time approached the sunset hour I kept hiking towards Brasstown Bald. I took a trip up here in July with the Southeastern Photographic Society, a local camera club, and got my first taste of shooting the stars. Wednesday was a New Moon and probably the last one before it starts to get really cold (it was cold enough that night when you’re at the highest elevation in Georgia)!

As the sun set over the valley I had two cameras running for time-lapse. Earlier while I was driving I saw the clouds swirling overhead and hoped they lasted long enough for sunset! Luckily everything cooperated and we had a spectacular show that night. Myself and one other couple stuck around after the remaining cars pulled out of the parking lot, we were obviously the die hards there to gaze upon the cosmos from atop Brasstown Bald. I pointed my cameras up and started shooting time lapse of the stars and Milky Way passing overhead. The photo above is a single frame from this time-lapse. I included the twinkling lights of Blairsville more in this sequence and thought it added a bit more interest to the entire scene.

As I type this I am rendering another time lapse actually, the triathlon from a few weeks ago that I photographed for the Georgia Public Broadcasting show I am working on. This blog post was my time killer while I wait for things to render, back to finishing up these wedding photographs!