ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY AND EXPOSURES
Harassing the stars
Although I have been based out of North Carolina for the majority of my time learning astrophotography and exposure methods, I am incredibly excited to get started with some astrophotography where I am attending graduate school because the PNW has much more dark sky than the East Coast. This section includes my beginning in understanding asltrophotograpy in North Carolina, and I will gradually add the exposures that I begin to take in much darker places!
MULTI-EXPOSURES
Charlotte, NC 2021
One of the many subjects/photography experiments that I am very excited to check out further while in the PNW is multi-exposure images. I was recently in Charlotte for the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit, and I took a few multi-exposures from the balcony of the Air BnB that I was staying at. The moon was not in an "ideal" location for my photos, so I decided to give the feature a shot and "move" it to a more interesting location. I have a bit more work to do in terms of WB and stability, but I am excited to continue working with the concept, especially with telescoping lenses.
GLOW STICKS
Throughout my senior year, my friends and I took several trips out to the parkway. One of my favorite things to do when taking exposures (especially since I was not in true dark sky areas throughout undergrad) was to bring glow sticks or other light sources to enhance and add some unpredictability to my exposures. I have my friend, Nick Crow (IG: @nick.crow88 - check out his photography) to thank for the idea and for providing various lamps and colorful lights! (2020-2021, Blue Ridge Parkway, NC)
July, 2020; around 11:00 PM.
I shot these (kind of shaky) exposures at Topsail Beach, NC while spending a few days at the beach with my family. I forgot my tripod and did not anticipate such clear skies, so I compromised and used a cup of ramen as a stable base in the sand (it actually worked a bit better than I anticipated). Although these are not the best images in regard to shakiness, I was happy with the clear images of the Milky Way Galaxy that resulted from them.
April 25th, 2021
This was one of the last nighttime pictures that I took with my DSLR before making the transition to mirrorless. I had a pretty high aperture setting on with this exposure, as well as a surprisingly low ISO. The exposure was quite short, and I used my 70-300 mm lens to capture some of the detail as well as a tripod and timed shutter release in order to limit shakiness.
One of my earlier attempts when learning to take exposures. One of my friends drove out to the parkway with me on a less-than-ideal night, but as I was shooting an exposure, a car drove past, illuminating the brush in the foreground. This picture, and some of the others that I took with him, introduced me to exposures with added light such as glow sticks to make photos pop (or just to have a fun time seeing what I could do with them). (Winter, 2018; around 11:00 PM)
A more recent snap that I took on the Blue Ridge Parkway at an overlook. Some friends and I drove over to it to take exposures; the Parkway was where I found some of the *best* *dark sky (obviously it is not that dark in many places in NC) during my time at school for my undergrad, but one of the benefits of less true dark sky was the ability to capture some neat views in the background - in this case, we were in the mountains, but could see cities such as Charlotte, NC from the overlooks at night.
Exposures in my Hometown
Although the light pollution limits my ability to work on true star exposures when I am at home, I still get the occasional practice in on hazy nights. These were some snaps that I took while getting harassed by mosquitoes during the summertime. (Triangle Area, NC; 2021)
This was one of my first attempts at taking an exposure at night. I was in my second year of undergraduate, and I positioned a grip tripod onto the walkway of an apartment complex (obviously very shaky from people walking up and down it) and then opened the shutter for about 20 seconds. I also evidently did not use a shutter release or timer because you can see the residual shaking from clicking the primary shutter button. (Fall, 2018; late at night)
