Hi all,
A week before the Venus Transit a local paper ran a story on me and my astrophotography and the reporter who did the story was interested in doing some night photography himself and has been dropping a few nudge nudge wink winks ever since to get me to show him how I do my shots. So last night I took him out to the Hume Weir to show him some of the basics.
I was initially going to do shots myself at the same time but after hearing his "Oh My God!!!!!" when his first shot of the central bulge of the Milky Way appeared on the lcd, I got caught up in his excitement and I was happy enough just helping him until he had to go home.
I then headed to a spot I have been thinking about for a while that might produce a nice star trail. It is the Bethanga Bridge which crosses Lake Hume not to far from the dam wall. I did a couple of test shots and then started the longer exposures. I had traffic going across the bridge (and past where I was parked- well off the road in a parking bay area) at fairly regular intervals, which I wanted anyway to light up the bridge, but about halfway through the second 15 minute exposure a car went past, slowed down and then reversed back up the road and swung into the parking bay. Leaving their high beams on and pointed straight at me the person gets out of their car and takes a couple of steps towards me and then abruptly jumps back in his car and takes of in a cloud of dust. What the....
Maybe he saw that I am six foot six and thought better of having a go at the guy taking pictures in the dark.
I really wanted to do a long star trail here but that incident left me a bit rattled, so once the second fifteen minute exposure finished I packed up and left.
So here is my unintentionally short star trail. I am keen to do this location again but I think that next time I will try and find a vantage point that isn't as open to bogans coming home from the pub.
Canon 5D Mk II
2 x 15 minutes
F/5.6
ISO 400
14mm lens
Oh and if anyone is interested in seeing what my reporter friend did last night with my guidance.......
http://500px.com/photo/10172283
http://500px.com/photo/10175463
and then the same shots with a few post processing tips....
http://500px.com/photo/10223587
http://500px.com/photo/10219449
Cheers
Greg
