Rodney Campbell's Blog

I was really hoping we’d get some nice clear nights, bright only with starlight, when staying on Montague Island. I’m a bit of an astro nut so any opportunity for dark skies away from city light pollution cannot be missed.

The timing of our stay was right as far as the moon phasing was concerned. Unfortunately however the heavy clouds persisted at night. Star trails were definitely off the cards – a pity.

Starlight

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 6400

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

We’d woken very early the first morning to shoot sunrise at a spot we’d recce’d the day before.

I took a look outside and say some breaks in the clouds above so decide to head out quickly. It’s 4:15AM and I did manage a few shots during a break of a few minutes in the clouds. The first image above is literally taken five metres from my bed :). Looking south east we’ve got a hint of the early twilight glow on the horizon.

Star Beacon

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 3200 x 6 Frames

I then headed up to the base of the lighthouse which sits up on a huge rock at the highest point of the island. Looking north this time and framing to have the milky way shoot up from to top of the lighthouse.

This is a stitched vertical panorama consisting of six (6) horizontal frames composed manually taken around 4:30AM.

Then it was back to the cottages to meet everyone else rising for our planned sunrise shoot on the eastern coastline.

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