Rodney Campbell's Blog

I had to keep an eye on the time with this one. I was aiming to get both a horizontal composition with the stars along with longer trails.

The horizontal composition with the 14mm ultrawide would help some with the longer trails. The further the stars are from the centre of the rotation the more they would appear to move through the sky in the same amount of time, and thus the trails would appear longer. Thus the trails to the far left and right of the frame which were at almost 90 degrees to the centre of rotation would appear to have relatively much longer trails.

However it was shooting more frames over a much longer period of time which would also give me longer trails. The previous evening I’d started late and shot 90 minutes worth of trails. Tonight I started my sequence at 8:47PM and left the camera and headed to the cabin to continue editing other images whilst I waited.

Eye on the Land

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 61 sec at f/2.8, ISO 1250 x 152 Frames

Note: These photographs (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.

Pro Tip: When shooting with dewey conditions it is worth taking steps to prevent dew and moisture buildup on your equipment. My camera was bare the previous night and was quite wet by the end of the 90 minute sequence (water was literally dripping off the camera). In the past I’ve done things like wrap my lens with a woollen sock to keep the camera warm and prevent condensation. This evening I used my new raincover to cover my whole setup (camera body, lens and tripod) and it appeared to do a very good job with my camera remaining completely dry this time.

This evening I let things run till 11:22PM and by then I had 152 x 61 second frames (a little over two and a half hours).

Sleepy Trails

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 70 mm, 1/80 sec at f/8, ISO 500

In the morning I rose early (tho not quite early enough to shoot before sunrise :)). Wandering out to the track near our cabin where I’d taken the trails the previous evenings, I took a few morning shots just after sunrise.

Morning DeLight

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 150 mm, 1/160 sec at f/8, ISO 800

Don't forget to Share...

Google

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin

Pinterest

Email

Print