So here I am back again aiming to write about my photographic journey.
Since the last time I wrote I have commenced regular road trips with a few of my passionate photographic friends. I'm not sure who started it, but whoever it was I thank you.
Our first trip out was to Dog Rocks, which is a small country town just outside of Geelong in Victoria (Australia), infact so small that if you blink you'll drive right past it. The purpose was to capture the movement of stars across the night sky, which is otherwise known as "Star Trails". This was something I'd never done, or imagined being able to do, so of course when the invite reached me I was more than enthused to participate.
It didn't seem to worry me that this would mean sitting out in a cold field somewhere for several hours as day turned to night and night revealed a beautiful sky full of twinkling lights.
(picture below is of Dog Rocks as the sun is going down)
Okay so enough complaining... a little bit more about what I learnt about Star Trails photographs.
Firstly you need a camera that can offer a long exposure - for me with my Nikon D300 without a shutter release cable I had 30 seconds as my longest exposure. This was not near long enough to capture any movement in the sky.
The other item that was suggested to enhance photographs was a torch! The reason for the torch was to light up anything on the ground that was available to frame or enhance your Star Trails. The torch allowed you to "paint (your picture) with light". Without light there was nothing.
At Dog Rocks we were lucky to have the lone tree or the Rocks that the location was named after. You can see the rocks in the image below.
Unfortunately for us that night the clouds moved faster than our camera processing time, so we only got a few photographs in. However when the weather warms a little more here I will definitely be out capturing the trails of the Stars in the moon lit skies. Maybe you'll join me?
