43.2

A little background, we had visited the Signal Hill petroglyph site in Saguaro National Park (west) the day prior for a sunrise attempt. That failed miserably. We hadn’t had a cloud up for three days. Sunrises and sunsets were suck city. Dave suggested we do a little more night shooting so we headed out without really knowing where we were going. It popped in my head to revisit Signal Hill again. It is a little better shielded from the ambient Tucson city lights and we had about an hour and a half until moonrise. Temperature was great, gear was good to go, spirits were high. After a short hike up the hill, I composed on the spiral and started light painting. Fast forward about an hour and fifteen minutes and I wasn’t particularly pleased with the results I was getting. The focus never seemed to be quite right. My headlamp was ticking me off and with many a failed attempt, the moon was on its inevitable trajectory right into my shot. One of my mantras came true: serendipity happens. We had a little cloud cover and a nice warm glow happening in the background. I finally managed to get the focus I wanted, and the stars were out in force. wOOt!