This is my first ever blog, not just my first ever blog, but my first ever attempt at my first ever blog, so, if this seems a little rough around the edges, that'll be why, but it's okay, you're not just here for the perfect read and I'm not just here because I'm the perfect first-attempt-at-first-time-blog-writer-guy.
We, meaning my fiancee Beth and I, have lived in our first home now for a grand total of, 3 and a half months-ish, we have most of the house sorted, the big things done at least, sofas and table had arrived, we have a pizza oven too, okay so maybe a bit more than the big things have been purchased, but, essentials, you know.. Anyways, Beth invited some of her friends round for pizza, they created their pizzas and I done the cooking side of things, it's a gas pizza oven and it gets hot, not kidding, like, 400 degrees celsius hot, to cook a pizza in around 2 minutes.
The Day went well, the pizzas were a success, however throughout the whole day there was something on my mind, "I wonder if it's going to be a clear night tonight..", it has been a long time since I've managed to get out at night for some astrophotography, a mixture of being too tired from the move, injured finger where I couldn't even hold a cup of tea, let alone take an expensive camera out and not forgetting the number one reason, I live in England, the weather, is definitely NOT an astrophotographers best friend here.
But as the night was drawing closer, I was getting more hopeful, I can't lie though, I was tired from the day of socialising for so long and cooking everyones pizza, making sure to not burn them, I had a tiny inclination of getting an early sleep, but of course it wouldn't be, I'd end up getting distracted with TV or a game and not sleep till around 11pm anyway and miss my opportunity to get outside, so I made sure my camera batteries were charged, my torch was charged, my tripod was ready and then, I waited.
And then I stopped waiting, the time was around 10pm when I left the house, there are some farmers fields near me, literally walking distance, so I went off in that direction, I had my back pack, loaded with my Canon EOS R8, my 16mm f2.8 lens, my tripod and my super powerful rechargeable torch.
So my town is pretty small and to be fair, it doesn't give off a lot of light pollution, but at close range, even small light pollution is very noticeable.
I'm not pretending I know the ins and outs and am a master of astrophotography, far from it in fact, but I do love it.
So into the fields I go, lucky for me walking the crops had been harvested, unlucky for the photo composition the crops had been harvested.. can't win them all.
So I found a nice location, spacious and flat enough to set up my tripod, I was a little bit foo fingers and thumbs, it had been a while since doing this so I made sure I only took what I knew I was going to use, no wasted gear for this shot.
I set up the tripod up, I use an app called StarWalk to help me know roughly where to point my camera, it's never exactly precise, but easy enough to adjust, so I pointed the camera West, and would you believe it, there's light pollution on the horizon because that's exactly where my town extends to, not going to sit and moan though, I'm out, I'm under a blank of stars, it's as clear as you could ask for, the only two things holding me up now is location, and my abilities with a camera.
I took some shots, alternating between shutter speeds and ISOs, to make sure I get the best focus, I magnify my screen as much as I can, which is 10x, aiming towards a star in the centre of the screen and slowly adjust the focus ring till the star is as crisp as it'll get, there's always a slight fluctuation, though, wind and a little unsteadiness in the stand, I really do need to upgrade my tripod sometime, but I do say to myself that I'll hold off spending more money till I actually get paid to take photos.
I did manage to get a couple nice shots of the Milky Way coming over the horizon, although with light pollution, but I done the best I could with editing the photo, what do you think?
Raw, 20s, f2.8, ISO 800
Post-Processed
After I took some shots towards the horizon, I decided to aim my camera up, following the Milky Way, I aimed my camera straight up to the stars so I had no light pollution what so ever, I got, what probably was my favourite photo that I’ve managed to take of the Milky Way in my few attempts over the years, I’ll show you the Raw file and edited shot again, below.
Raw, 25s, f2.8, ISO 1250
Post-Processed
I was very happy with the results of that second shot, no it isn’t perfect, yes I can improve, but that’s what this game of photography is, always trying to make sure the next shot is better than the last.
I took a few photos on my phone which I’ll post below as well.
The final note I have about this short night, was that, even though I was tired, yes it’s getting a little colder, sometimes I might have to drive to a nicer location, sure the weather can ruin my plans when I have 2 nights in the week where I could possibly get out, but, when I do manage to get out, when I’m under the ocean of stars, I feel refreshed, I feel relaxed and I feel content, not to mention the constant amazement of how vast space is, all those twinkling little dots in the sky are no different than our sun in our solar system, and they all have their own planets and we can only see a minuscule amount of what there actually is out there, nothing in my mind is more humbling, than to know how small we all are, that feeling can really takes your worries off your shoulders in that moment, that is why I love being outside in the dead of night, taking a photo of the Milky Way, it’s not just for “the shot”, it’s for me.
Thank you for reading my first blog, I hope you enjoyed it, not too long of a read and I'll see you in the next one,
Richard.
Pixeled World Photos
