A Foray Into Astral Photography

It's been something I've planned to do so many times, stay up to photograph the stars in the night sky - hopefully in a picturesque setting. The only problem has been that all too often my bed is too warm and cozy as opposed to the cold night air.

Not only that, you see, my bed is a very jealous bed and once it has be wrapped in its warm and cozy embrace it is unwilling to release me to the chill of night - even if it's for a little astral photography.

But on a recent trip to Cama Beach, I was determined to try my hand at some night time photography. The setting would be perfect - cabins lined along the beach each with a warm glow emanating from the windows. 

On top of all that, night was somewhat early right before the time change so I could stay up, dress warmly and not have to argue with the warm comforts of my bed.

The front cabin here is mine. I debated as I set up the composition if I wanted to shut the door tightly. In the end, I rather liked the door cracked open - invitingly. Plus it helped break up the dark corner of the cabin.

For setting up the image, I knew from watching a few on-line classes and reading articles, that I didn't want the exposure to be too long (longer that 20 seconds and the stars could elongate too much).So I used 800 ISO (after several images of experimenting with higher ISO and seeing the windows get blown out by highlights) and an aperture of f8 to keep my shutter speed at 20 seconds. 

Focus stayed on my cabin there in the front and I was far enough away that with the hyperfocal distance of the lens, the stars stayed in distant focus. And really, keeping the shutter speed short is supposed to help keep those little buggers from getting too fuzzy.

All in all, it was a fun excursion into a new skill, one I hope I can convince my bed to allow me to keep working on. Hopefully, I'll be able to create the oh so pretty images like I see on-line so often.

And I'm always willing for a little company while out there if you're able to convince your own bed to let you join me.