Feed

Although I tried to research ahead of time “how” to photograph the eclipse, the recommendations (unsurprisingly) were in the language of photography which I did not speak. I was at square zero with the subject and terminology, and I was too preoccupied with other more important things that would also be happening during the eclipse to do a deep dive on photography ahead of time.

In continuing to try out all the things “astrophotographers” on the internet do, I attempted light painting a tree in the foreground with a flashlight. It was pretty sloppy, and is maybe the only time I ever did this.

I had only days before broken my multi-decade streak of not ever trying to do astrophotography, and I was riding some nightly momentum acclimatizing myself to doing weird things like going out alone in the dark with a camera. The past couple of nights I had just tried taking some shots around my front yard and in a field in my neighborhood, and I wanted to see the difference in an area removed from most of the light pollution. With google and light pollution maps I found a place to drive out to – about an hour from my house and down some farm roads. About a half mile from the planned destination the road was torn up to repair a bridge. I figured that was actually a good thing since “there won’t be traffic coming through” so I parked my car and went out to set up my camera deeper into the road construction.

Hardly anything is visible in this image but it’s included to anchor in time the beginning of my serious attempts to start learning how to capture photos of the night sky. Humble beginnings and whatnot. I wasn’t sure where to start, and figured the best answer was “Point the camera at the sky and see what happens. Go from there…”

Pictures from one time we went to the zoo.

Images from vacation to Jamaica in 2012

Manual excerpt changed

[md content]

[md content]

[md content]