Experimenting with astrophotography whilst out bouldering - 750 sec exposure, bouldering & off-camera speedlight.
Bouldering and astrophotography go great together with sleeping under the stars and bonfires. I took these shots whilst out with some good friends around Sihla monastery, in the monastery lands of Eastern part of Romania.
The details for the top image are: Nikon D700, Nikkor 50 mm 1.8D, f/10, 750 sec, ISO 800. Yeah, 750 seconds long exposure. That was one of my first attempts at a star trail photo. I am hoping on doing more when I get the chance again.
I played a bit with my SB600 Speedlight flash whilst on this trip and you can see the results in a couple of the shots below. I use the Speedlight off the camera with the Commander function of the built in camera flash.
My mate Vali showing me his way around a bouldering problem. I did use the SB600 on this one.
The boulders around there are this really nice sandstone. It does require some cleaning at times and there were quite a lot of pesky mosquitoes around too.
The soft evening light falling gently on the moss growing on the side of one of the boulders out there.
Nikon D700, Nikkor 24-85mm 3.5-4.5G ED, f/8, 10 sec, 24 mm, ISO 200. +SB600
This was actually a test shot before I asked Vali to go up it slowly wearing my headlight.
Nikon D700, Nikkor 24-85mm 3.5-4.5G ED, f/8, 8 sec, 24 mm, ISO 560. +SB600
This is him climbing it with the headlight. I had the flash fire at the start of the route and 8 seconds later when he got to the top but the results are quite messy. It still was fun to do.
And then the night came... :D
Nikon D700, Nikkor 24-85mm 3.5-4.5G ED, f/3.5, 28 sec, 24 mm, ISO 6400.
Nikon D700, Nikkor 50 mm 1.8D, f/1.8, 1/5 sec, ISO 1600.
This is how our campsite looked like. It was next to a stream which we used for keeping the beers cool. We ended up having a bonfire and cooking some awesome beef on it later on when the flames died a bit.
Nikon D700, Nikkor 50 mm 1.8D, f/1.8, 16 sec, ISO 6400.
This one is of a part of the Milky Way that was well visible from our camp.
Awesome night shots and cool shots in camp
The star trail is awesome my first attempt at them was a real mess and other times I got OK ones except I tried multiple shots of a few seconds and stacked them together on y PC with a fre program call Starstax I think it was and they came out OK I find that way has less noise in the end image but thats just my experience and I have only tried light trails 3 or 4 tims so take that with a grain of salt LOL
Being away from a city where you were without any light pollution is the kind of place i need to get to next time I try
Resteemed and upvoted
Many thanks for the visit and the thoughtful comment! Good to know that you liked the shots. Never heard of Starstax but I know stacking works, just that I like getting really close to the end result straight in the camera (less work for at home). I think this needs quite a bit of practice and some really fast lenses which I am somewhat lacking in the wide range. Being away from any major city is a must. You also have to go on a night with no Moon or clouds for really good results. I need to get out to a desert probably for the best results or high up on a remote mountain top I guess :D Again, many thanks and steem on!
Indeed it's cool to get it close to right on the camera
That's why I don't do many attempts at it so much light pollution where I live but will work out a place to go sometime
Cheers
Getting it right in the camera saves precious time. I also like talking just a few well thought out shots rather than 1000s or rushed ones that I have to go through later and pick the better ones. I would be curious if there was an app that could tell you what spots around you have the least light pollution... :)
Great post. Thanks for sharing :)
Cheers, glad you liked it! :)
Simply awesome, you take travel to next level @creutzy
Nice rhymes :D
Indeed! :D
Cheers! Travelling is my main thing, it makes me tick and all that...
Wow thats awesome.
Thank you! :)
Upvoted and RESTEEMED!
Many thanks! I am very grateful for that! :)
Nice👏✌😊
Beautiful! Thank you for sharing. ....
Thanks! Glad you liked it!
Your work is beautiful, my friend. Should try it with my Lumix. Didn't realize Nikon's get such great night shots. Great job!
Cheers! I am glad you liked it! You should try it with your Lumix for sure, or Canon or Pentax or whichever camera you can get your hands on. You just need to go out and capture stuff. But does your Lumix have a Bulb setting?