A Hilarious Description of an Incredible Photograph

While browsing through my Flow earlier today, I suddenly stumbled across the work of Jesse Summers.

An obviously talented nightscape photographer whose milky way photos will make you want to either go out and practice or bash your I’m-never-gonna-be-this-good head against a wall, I have to admit that it wasn’t just his photography that convinced me to click follow.

It was the description for his most recent photo:

Here’s Jesse’s wonderfully cheeky description of how he got this shot, and some stern advice on how you should experience it:

I wish I was a good storyteller. It seems like a big part of landscape photography these days is having a good story to go with the image. I normally just post images, but I’ll attempt to regale my audience with a brief tale of my exploits the night I took this.

Ready for an epic story? Here we go: This was a pretty easy shot to take. I just had to hike to hooker glacier lake, stay warm, and keep my tripod still in 70km winds. I was adequately prepared with alpine gear and a solid tripod, so that really wasn’t an issue. The hike was a lot easier than anticipated. I took the photo without incident, an easy blend of at least 47 different images with different focal lengths, focus points, and degrees of inebriation. Just kidding. I won’t brag about my technical prowess. This is just a vertical stitch of three horizontal shots.

I saw a possum on the way back, what a cheeky little bugger. It startled me a little bit because it was aggressive. I made it back to camp and the winds increased to 110kph. My tent blew away with me in it. It was kind of fun but also annoying because it ripped in a couple places. I had to replace it with a better tent. I now have a sweet MSR wind-proof four season tent. It’s pretty sweet. I still use my old tent from time to time, I fixed the ripped spots with duct tape. I always carry some duct tape when I backpack, despite the weight. It’s indispensible.

The end.

Captivating, right? No? Didn’t think so.

At least it’s a cool photo.

Oh, be a dear and view it on black. At night. In a dark room, With a glass of Glenlivet 18, neat. Preferably on a Mac Retina 27″ iMac (even though I processed it on my netbook.) But shhhh, don’t tell anyone. Also, while viewing this photo, make sure you are listening to ‘Nightcall’ by Kavinsky on Sennheiser HD-800 headphones (with an external DAC and tube amplification, of course). You won’t be able to appreciate it otherwise.

I thought two things when I finished reading this brilliant piece of storytelling: 1. Bravo Mr. Summers… Bravo; and 2. Dammit I left my $1,600 Sannheiser HD-800s in my other bag! I know… epic fail.

If you, like me, are bereft of Sannheiser, here are 15 more awesome photos from Jesse’s profile that you can appreciate sans-headphones:

To see more of Jesse’s work, do as I did and follow him on 500px. And if that’s not enough, you can also find him on his website and good ol’ Facebook.