Dartmouth Photographer Captures the Milky Way Over Padanaram Harbor

Sometimes I scroll through Facebook and see an amazing photo that looks like it was posted by National Geographic or something similar. It’s not very often that I find out that the photo was taken by someone local to the SouthCoast.

That’s what happened on Tuesday, June 8. This stellar photo was posted on Facebook by a Dartmouth photographer named Mike Howell. It instantly took my breath away and I wanted to share the image with my younger brother who is captivated by all things space-related. This was spectacular and so close to home.

I contacted Howell to ask him about this picture and the pride behind his work is evidently clear.

“As far as the image goes; it was a 30-second exposure to allow the most amount of light into the sensor,” said Howell. “ISO was 4000, and f-stop 3.5 on a Nikon film lens from the ’70s! It was processed in Adobe Lightroom with a few tweaks in IG editor.”

I am not a photographer, nor will I pretend to understand everything Howell said about how the photo was captured, but I can certainly appreciate the masterpiece and all of the work that went into creating this stunning image.

Howell primarily photographs weddings and families but explained that he truly loves long exposures and documenting his kids and family.

“This art form allows me to share my work along with a positive message to the world,” said Howell.