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A surprise temporary assignment ignited a West Virginia coal miner’s passion for photographing night skies and other wonders.
Photo Above: “Summit Lake is at 3,400’ in elevation and the Cranberry Glades Wilderness surround it to create a great place to shoot a springtime Milky Way panorama. North is to left, east at the center and the southern sky is on the right.” —Dave Green
Dave Green was born near the New River Gorge in Beckley, West Virginia, and grew up exploring its abundant wilderness areas. Most male family members worked for coal mines and he followed in their footsteps at age 21.
Green married, fathered two children, got promoted, was happy enough. Then an interim position introduced him to an unexpected passion.
“I was working as a mine rescue team member and safety instructor (as I still am), and when the staff videographer quit and, for some reason, my boss tells me to fill-in,” laughs Green, now 41. “Well, at that point, I couldn’t have told you how to turn a digital camera on.”
But it was his job and Green took it seriously. He read product manuals, combed online forums, watched hours of YouTube tutorials. Trial-and-error making training and safety videos brought steady improvement.
“I started out terrible, then sucked less as time went on,” says Green. Still, it didn’t take long to “realize this was something I really enjoyed.”
The epiphany led to post-work experiments with new techniques—like hiking with a shutterbug pal into the 17,371-acre Dolly Sods Wilderness to take time-elapsed photos of the night sky. The trip was novel, but capturing the smoky, galactic swirl of fluorescent colors and constellations moved him.
“It was nothing short of magical,” says Green. “I felt like a kid looking up at the stars, just overwhelmed with awe and wonder. I was hooked immediately.”
Checking night sky maps revealed West Virginia is home to the best and most abundant viewing opportunities east of the Mississippi River. A rabbit hole of research brought theoretical know-how and heaps of new gear—like wide-angle lenses, star trackers and editing software—that fueled a spiraling obsession. Green began to keep track of astrological events and weather patterns, and plan weekends or vacation days around photos. He’d pick a natural area like Seneca Rocks, lug 50 pounds of gear up a trail, set up at an overlook, then snap photos through the night. Next came weeks of editing them into a large, composite image that showcases the startling beauty of a wild landscape beneath an incredulous blaze of stars.
“I realized pretty quickly my photos were going to be about more than just the sky,” says Green. He aims to capture the experience of gazing up into the unfathomable expanse of the cosmos from a particular place—one that feels awe-inspiring in its own right.
Green’s skill grew with practice. When friends and family saw his work, they urged him to share it online. A dedicated website and social media pages launched in 2020 to positive reception: Requests for prints, portraits and special commissions flooded in. So too invitations to show at regional art galleries. But Green’s favorite accolade so far? NASA naming his composite of Orion rising over Green Bank Observatory its photo of the day.
“I feel incredibly grateful for these experiences and to be able to share my love for West Virginia’s amazing nature areas with others,” says Green. “To me, my photos are a way of better appreciating the world and my place in it, and I hope that sense comes through to others.”
The story above first appeared in our September / October 2024 issue.
