Creative Photography

[briantrumpet]

Off to the Elan Valley for an all-nighter tonight making the most of the clear skies so hopefully I’ll have something to bore you all with over the weekend once I’ve had a chance to do some processing. I’ve got a few compositions in mind so hopefully I won’t come back with a load of out-of-focus, unusable rubbish. I can also take a walk to see the new artwork they’ve installed in memory of Alyn Wallace who was my go to source for learning Milky Way photography. There was also some very good aurora activity this afternoon so hopefully that will be a Bruce bonus.

Out-of-focus, unusable rubbish night skies are ©briantrumpet, so don't you dare.

 

[briantrumpet]

Today, I took on my nemesis, the daffodil. Admittedly, I tackled the easier non-trumpet variety, leaving the standard ones as yellow blobs in the background.
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Not bad. I wonder what it is about them that makes them problematic for both of us?

 

[Way-Out-West]

Not bad. I wonder what it is about them that makes them problematic for both of us?

The bright yellow flower heads clashing against the sage green stems might be what puts me off.
It could just be a case of must try harder.
This morning's daffodil effort.

 

[Pross]

Finally going to bed after being out all night and then walking up a mountain at 6.30am on my way home to capture the sunrise then having to walk the dogs and jet wash the patio when I got home. Will be downloading and processing a lot of photos later. Hopefully some will be usable, there were some nice looking individual frames but I need to stitch them into panoramas which can be hit and miss. I knew the aurora stats had been looking promising so at just after 1am whilst waiting for the moon to set and Milky Way core to rise I took a test shot on the phone just to see if it picked anything up. This was just a handheld 3 second point and press roughly facing the northern sky. I really liked what came out, it feels like something out of a kids book with fairies and unicorns with the faint pink aurora and the fluffy moonlit clouds through the trees.

 

[briantrumpet]

Only taken with my cheap phone, but for once I resisted trying to get a lot of Exeter Cathedral in the frame.

 

[Way-Out-West]

Only taken with my cheap phone, but for once I resisted trying to get a lot of Exeter Cathedral in the frame.

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Good that and I think it looks better for being a tighter shot on this occasion. It leaves more intrigue for the viewer and the magnolia becomes equally dominant.
I often like the restrictiveness of using prime lenses, they take away the option of going wider (unless you walk backwards), you then have to make the decision of where to chop.

 

[Way-Out-West]

Having said all that about using primes and not having the ability to go wider, I massively contradict myself by posting a 4 shot panorama using a 200mm prime lens. There’s a nice amount of detail in the shot (for my setup) that you won’t be able to see here.
I've been using this exceptionally easy to use online panorama creator lately. https://sisik.eu/pano

 

[Pross]

This was my main target last night, Nantgwyllt church at Garreg Ddu dam in the Elan Valley. My first attempt at using my star tracker but the gusty wind has meant some frames weren't as sharp as I'd hoped. This is a panorama of 6 foreground shots, 2 minute exposure, f4.0 and ISO 1600 taken around 2:45am whilst the moon was still up. The sky is then 2 rows of 6 shots using the tracker - 90 second exposures, f2.8 and ISO 1600 stitched together and blended in Photoshop then level adjustments in Lightroom. It's not as clean as I'd hoped due to the conditions and getting used to the kit but I'm pleased that I managed the process. The foreground panorama looked way better than I'd hoped and stitched better than anything I've done before. The Milky Way wasn't as bright as I'd hoped. You can just about see some aurora in the sky behind the trees to the left of frame (or at least you can at full definition).

 

[Pross]

Moonlight over the river at Pont Elan. I would have liked to get down more into the river to pick up the water cascading but wasn't risking falling and getting injured in the middle of nowhere in the small hours.

 

[Way-Out-West]

This was my main target last night, Nantgwyllt church at Garreg Ddu dam in the Elan Valley. My first attempt at using my star tracker but the gusty wind has meant some frames weren't as sharp as I'd hoped. This is a panorama of 6 foreground shots, 2 minute exposure, f4.0 and ISO 1600 taken around 2:45am whilst the moon was still up. The sky is then 2 rows of 6 shots using the tracker - 90 second exposures, f2.8 and ISO 1600 stitched together and blended in Photoshop then level adjustments in Lightroom. It's not as clean as I'd hoped due to the conditions and getting used to the kit but I'm pleased that I managed the process. The foreground panorama looked way better than I'd hoped and stitched better than anything I've done before. The Milky Way wasn't as bright as I'd hoped. You can just about see some aurora in the sky behind the trees to the left of frame (or at least you can at full definition).

View attachment 767996

Firstly, great effort!
When I stepped outside late last night, I noticed significant cloud cover here, which made me wonder whether the skies would be clear enough for you. Your first photograph has a great look, with the highlights on the church making it stand out from the background. Very atmospheric.

 

[Pross]

Firstly, great effort!
When I stepped outside late last night, I noticed significant cloud cover here, which made me wonder whether the skies would be clear enough for you. Your first photograph has a great look, with the highlights on the church making it stand out from the background. Very atmospheric.

Thanks. It clouded over between about 1 and 2 am. The app I use and the Met Office cloud maps were smack on for that. There was a bit lingering to the northwest but luckily I was shooting southwest to northeast.

 

[Pross]

Stopped of at Llangorse Lake for the end of blue hour on my way home and then climbed the final 800 feet of the 2000 foot Mynydd Troed just in time to catch the sun rise over Waun Fach (highest peak in the Black Mountains)

 

[Pross]

Posting photos from the phone on here sucks. Not sure if I’m doing something wrong and there is another method?

 

[Animo]