Scott A. Labay Digital Photography

Scott A. Labay Digital Photography I am a photographer in Greensburg, in the beautiful Laurel Highlands of Southwestern Pennsylvania. And coffee - I love coffee!

I love astrophotography and also do nature/landscapes and product photography.

My last imaging session went well..... until it didn't. When I went to sleep, I had gorgeous clear skies. I woke up at 6...
08/08/2026

My last imaging session went well..... until it didn't. When I went to sleep, I had gorgeous clear skies. I woke up at 6:30am to an unexpected and unforecast torrential downpour. I ran out and covered the scope. When the rain stopped, I checked everything. Cameras and mount were fine. SV106 guide scope dew shield was full of water. SV503 telescope was hazed. After dumping the water and leaving everything open for the day to dry, everything was good as new except the telescope. It had water in the optical cell between the lens elements. At this point, I was figuring that I was going to be shopping for a new telescope, so what harm was there in trying: I took the optical cell and put it in my 3D printer's filament dryer (the food dehydrator I stole from my wife 😆) After doing my homework about heat possibly damaging the glue between the elements I took my chances with low and slow, and after 6 hours at 90 degrees (F), everything was dry, clear, and beautiful! WHEW!!!

I will keep my eyes on it and make sure all stays OK, but for anyone else in a similar situation in the future, LOW and SLOW. 90 degrees is what your scope would be subjected to under natural conditions outside in the south or in an observatory without climate control in the summer, so those temperatures should be safe for it. Before you give up on that scope, give this a try.

Here's another image from the archives before I had my own photography page. This is Mill Creek Falls near Laughlintown,...
08/08/2026

Here's another image from the archives before I had my own photography page. This is Mill Creek Falls near Laughlintown, PA. Mill Run is a beautiful little waterfall that is off of the beaten track so I had the place all to myself. If you want to visit it yourself, it is about a 1/2 mile walk from the parking area, and be sure to wear your orange because it is in the middle of State Game Lands 42. This image is a 4-shot focus stack to capture all of the detail along the way back to the waterfall.

I'm closing in on a milestone 1k followers, so if you're not already following me, click the follow next to my name. If you are following me, click on my name, go to my page, click the 3 dots and click invite friends to share my page with your friends who love photography. A huge thank you to my followers who have been with me growing this page!

I guess one of the big curses of photography is that you take a lot of images and then when you go back looking for some...
08/07/2026

I guess one of the big curses of photography is that you take a lot of images and then when you go back looking for something else, you realize how much stuff you have that you haven't shared! It isn't a bad problem to have once you find that stuff. This tranquil scene is Adam Falls in Linn Run State Park from September 2023. Adam Falls is a tough subject because you have to catch it on a day following a good rainfall, otherwise it is pretty much a slow dribble.

I am at 939 followers - SO CLOSE to 1000! Please follow me if you are not already and invite your friends to follow me by going to my page, clicking the three dots, and selecting "Invite friends". It really helps me to grow my page.

🎉 Facebook recognized me as a consistent post creator this week! (LOL I've kind of been slacking for weeks, but I'll tak...
08/07/2026

🎉 Facebook recognized me as a consistent post creator this week! (LOL I've kind of been slacking for weeks, but I'll take it!) 😂😂😂😂😂

Please read all of this to the end for inspiration....CHAOS. That describes how the past few weeks have been going for m...
08/06/2026

Please read all of this to the end for inspiration....

CHAOS. That describes how the past few weeks have been going for me. Changing jobs, changing schedules for training and changing back to nights for my regular work schedule has had me all messed up on posting and I haven't been out on any fresh shoots lately (or taking the lunchbox camera with me on my new job yet)

This image is a rewind to when I first got bit by the astrophotography bug, and for the longest time I had intended to keep it as night landscape photography. This image was taken September 3, 2023 at Mammoth Park in Mount Pleasant (Westmoreland County) PA. It was my first time ever capturing the Milky Way and my first time getting awarded the Photo of the Week in the Laurel Highlands Photo Group. For someone who has "taken pictures" for his whole life, this was the first validation for me that "Hey! Maybe I really AM a photographer!!" In a lot of hobbies or professions, people are frequently plagued by Imposter Syndrome, where in my case, you feel like you aren't REALLY a photographer, you are just posing as one or are an imposter to the group. It is a difficult hurdle to get past and holds a lot of people back from following their dreams. It can be a hard pill to swallow sometimes, but you have to stop doubting yourself, put yourself out there, and just go for it. It never really goes away either. Trust me - even I still feel like an imposter at times, even though nearly 1000 of you are following me to see my work in your feeds. I can be quite the social butterfly with people that I know, but I really am quite the introvert and it takes a lot to make that leap to put yourself out in front of others, especially on a social media platform where literally the eyes of the world are on you and your work. I see people who comment on my posts from time to time, "I love your work. I wish I could take pictures like that." "I have a camera and I would like to get into photography" "All I have is my phone, I could never take pictures like that" YOU CAN DO IT!

If anyone is interested in help, I am always happy to teach people - leave me a comment or reach out to me by DM and I can give tips and help you on your own journey.

Last week I posted the Full Buck Moon, but that wasn't the only buck I captured last week. These guys come to my yard in...
08/05/2026

Last week I posted the Full Buck Moon, but that wasn't the only buck I captured last week. These guys come to my yard in Armbrust, PA for a snack almost every night. It is always nice to see our woodland visitors!

I'm almost at the 1000 follower milestone! If you're not following me already, click the blue FOLLOW link. If you are following me, please go to my page, click the 3 dots, and go to "Invite people to connect" and share my page with your friends. It only takes a minute, but it really helps me grow my page. Thanks for sticking around and checking out my work!!!

While waiting at Twin Lakes Park in Greensburg, PA for the Union Pacific Big Boy to pass through the Pittsburgh Line I s...
08/04/2026

While waiting at Twin Lakes Park in Greensburg, PA for the Union Pacific Big Boy to pass through the Pittsburgh Line I snapped this shot looking towards Latrobe. I loved the reflection of the landscape in the top of the rail. Credit to my awesome photography assistant (my wife 🥰) for the idea for this shot.

Foamers: Save your breath. Yes, it is an active rail line. The line was cleared for the UP Big Boy which was stopped just a few miles up the line in Latrobe being greased and there was a NS MOW worker here monitoring the line and working in the ROW. I edited him out of the scene.

If you aren't following me already, please click the follow link to follow my page. If you are following me, please go to my page, click the three dots, and go to "Invite People to Connect" - I am SOOOO close to the milestone of having 1000 amazing followers!!

Another benefit of the free datasets at www.astrophotomarket.com : You get to practice on data that you likely will neve...
08/01/2026

Another benefit of the free datasets at www.astrophotomarket.com : You get to practice on data that you likely will never get the opportunity to collect on your own. I live in Western Pennsylvania and NGC 6188, The Fighting Dragons of Ara are a southern hemisphere only target. Thanks to I was able to download Wade Tubman's excellent dataset (for free!) and practice my image processing on 35 hours of data that he collected in Sydney, Australia.

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PO Box 212
Armbrust, PA
15616

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