My friend, Kimble, is very interested in photography and trying different techniques and effects, and he often gets me out shooting more. Last night we trekked out, deep into Gatineau Park, to take star trail pictures. These are pictures when the exposure, or a series of exposures, are done over several minutes or hours. In our case, since it was freezing cold outside, we stuck with a relatively short amount of time of about 30 minutes.
The closer you shoot towards the north star, the more rings you get. As you can see in my first shot, the north star would have been just right of centre at the top.
Here are my very first attempts of capturing star trails. Each picture is about 30-50 separate 30 second shots taken consecutively then layered in Photoshop after. My batteries died pretty quickly because it was so cold out and they are old batteries. Will be better equipped next time... and in the summer.
Here's my second attempt a few days later. Just threw my camera out the back yard and let it do its thing for an hour. Got the north star this time!
The Old Observatory in the Experimental Farm. Feb 23, 2011.
Nice pictures, Alex. If I hadn't read your blog I would have thought you had to take those pictures by going in circles...and very fast circles at that. I'm amazed at what can be done with a camera if you have the talent!
ReplyDeleteWere you pointing to the south in the second picture, because I notice some of the trails are curved down in the second picture? These are amazing
ReplyDeleteThanks Evie. Anyone can do it!
ReplyDeleteYes I was pointing in the exact opposite direction for the second shot.
So we're actually seeing the earth's rotation here? I find this captivating!
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