Star Light, Star Bright

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When was the last time you were out late at night under a dark sky? I and 7 other members of the photography club ventured up to Fremont Peak to marvel at and photograph stars, planets, our galaxy, and each other. We arrived in time to see the sun set into a sea of fog....and then trooped up to the observatory to wait for the sky to blacken and stars to emerge. On moonless nights the observatory stays open until midnight for campers, amateur astronomers, and photographers to peer into the universe. This first photo was taken at 9:30, before the sky was completely black. Look closely and you'll see both the Big and Little Dippers.

By 10 o'clock the sky was dark enough to see the Milky Way. I cannot look at it without feeling reverence, appreciation, and a bit bewitched. I veer toward the poetic.

One Hundred Billion
Pinpricks of Glittering Light
Marvelous Milky Way
(I'm taking an online writing class and the last assignment
was to create Haiku)

The final hour of the night, we practiced photographing star trails. To get really long, clear star trails requires taking a series of exposures (like 20 or more) and then blending them into one image. I don't have the skill or the patience to tackle that, so I left the shutter open for 30 minutes and hoped for the best. During that 30 minutes, I leaned back and gazed at the sky, spotting several shooting stars. I liked the image that resulted, but I had to clean out a lot of noise (colored pixels) caused by the long exposure. Do you know why one star (toward the upper right of the frame) does not have a trail? That star (Polaris) and a sextant will tell you where you are in the world: the first GPS system.

This photo of me and a few of my nocturnal comrades
was taken just before we left at midnight.

I learned a valuable (think expensive) lesson on the walk back to the car: take the time to securely stow your camera gear. I didn't and when I adjusted the bag on my shoulder, my camera flew out and hit the asphalt hard. Fortunately, an edge of the lens took the brunt of the impact (shattering the UV filter). I am hopeful that everything still works, but the filter is so dented I can't get it off the lens to check it all out.

You can see more celestial photos on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/mhpc-night-focusgroup/

Apple of My Eye

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Gizdich is a working fruit ranch in Watsonville with acres of apple orchards and berry patches. You can pick your own strawberries or buy them by the flat in the produce store. For this photographer, visual overload hit as soon as I stepped out of my car. Farm equipment (some working and some in neglected disrepair), old cars and motorcycles, antiques, barns, junk piles and scenic vistas reminiscent of Tuscany triggered a fit of ADD. I turned in circles not knowing where to go first. I chose the closest orchard.
I walked in and focused on the apples. The wide expanse of rows and structure had a calming effect and I started seeing forms and color and details. At 7:30am, the overcast, gray sky provided perfect diffused light.

There was enough in the orchards to occupy me for hours, but I knew there was more so I set about exploring. Behind the barn, a crippled motorcycle and a blue, decrepit VW Bug were surrounded by a junk yard of rusting plow and tractor parts. Everything was seemingly held together by spider webs.Inside a shed, I spied a snake pile of irrigation hoses. I was intrigued by the repetitious, circular lines, but didn't think that translated into an interesting photo, so panned the camera during the exposure to create a special effect.

As I continued to explore, interesting subjects presented themselves, some crying out, "Take my picture." I accommodated as many as I could until the sun broke through (ruining the beautiful light), and hoards of people arrived. I was too tired to continue. I packed up and drove home.

"...bombs bursting in air"

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I have photographed Morgan Hill's fireworks display several times and wondered if I really needed any additional photos of fire bursting in air. Starting with the parade in the morning followed by a bar-b-q, the day had already been long. And darkness would not arrive until well after 9:00pm.
Fortunately I had arranged to meet up with others from the photography club, or I might have stayed home.
Whether I needed more fireworks photos was irrelevant. Photography is a journey and I could always benefit from more practice. Even if I deleted every photo, the experience of taking them would strengthen my skills

Hoping to capture a unique image (or two), I used a technique I had read about in an online article. I switched the camera to manual focus and set it for infinity. Then I adjusted the shutter speed to "bulb," which would keep the shutter open as long as the release button was depressed. (I didn't actually keep my finger on the button. I used a cable release attached to the camera.)
The first burst showed me where to point the camera. Then I held the shutter open with my left hand while holding a square of black foam in front of the lens with my right hand. Each time I saw a burst, I pulled the black foam away for a second or two, then put it back in front of the lens to block the light (while still holding the shutter open). Doing this several times during one long exposure produced images with overlapping bursts of color.

An added benefit of this method is that I could watch the full spectrum of the show. Once the camera was set up, I did not need to look through the lens to get the shots. Not all the bursts are in the same place in the sky, so some were missed completely and shots had only a fraction of the bursts, but overall, I found the results very pleasing.




I also took some individual shots.

I liked the simplicity of the lines of this first one, and the abstract quality of the dancing lights falling off the flowing gold in the last one. You can view more of my fireworks images on my flickr photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/suebrazelton/