This was the first time I had visited the Park.  I went by this area as a kid in 1968  but that was it.  At the end of summer in 2020, during a lull in the COVID-19 period, my wife and I were heading to Nestor Falls to meet up with friends from out west.  As part of our adventure, we decided to camp midway at Pancake Bay Provincial Park and then for a few nights at Quetico. 

The night I captured these images was likely the “stariest” night I’d ever seen. No moon and an air mass that was cold, dry, and wind-free. Perfect for astrophotography.  At the time, Quetico P.P. was becoming a designated dark sky park. In fact, it officially became one on February 23, 2021.

I used my various lenses on a Sony A6300 to capture the night sky (Sigma 16mm, 30mm, and 56mm). As well, all of the images are composites; I created HDR panoramas using 5 to 11 groups of 3 images each, vertically and horizontally oriented, to capture a larger portion of the sky at high resolution.  As a treat for me, I used one of the panoramas to create a poster and had it printed on 24″ x 36 gloss paper. That was amazing  Then I had it printed on metal, showed it to a friend he promptly bought it. So I ordered another one for me. It’s absolutely stunning . . . one of those pinch me moments, I can’t believe it was me that created that image. (You just never quite know, with night photography, how things will turn out.)