Rodney Campbell's Blog

There was an incredible glow in the sky even though it was late in the evening (8:45PM). Sunset in this part of Australia at this time of the year is quite late (after 8:30PM) but tonight was special. There was a band of cloud right on the horizon and some very thick black moody clouds up high in the sky so the sunset itself was unremarkable. However it was after sunset during twilight that the magic started to happen. Inbetween the sandwich of cloud the sky started to glow and the soft magical light started to wash across the land.

Glow

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 230 mm, 2.5 to 20 sec at f/8, ISO 100

The farmhouse of course backs right up against some fields (or paddocks for those who care) so I was literally able to just grab the camera and shoot over the back fence.

I tried some handheld shots at first (because I though the light would fade fast) but I was shooting near 300mm and handholding bracketed slow shutter frames at insane ISO’s. It was time to grab the tripod and do this properly :).

Because the contrast was so great I was taking multi frame exposure brackets.

This vertical composition above was just after 9PM and is a manual layer blend of a five frame bracket from -2EV to +2EV.

This horizontal composition is a manual layer blend of a seven frame bracket from -3EV to +3EV. It was taken only a couple of minutes later but the light was dropping rapidly so I had to punch the ISO just to keep the shutter in a usable range.

Divining

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 85 mm, 0.6 to 20 sec at f/8, ISO 400

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

Sometimes nature just puts on a subtle but beautiful show and you just have to be there to enjoy and if you’re lucky capture it.

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