Exposure Time: 30 seconds
Aperture: f/3.8
Focal Length: 20mm
ISO: 200
This is a long exposure at a wide aperture with medium speed “film”. In other words, it was very dark. It was nearly impossible to see the power lines in the sky with the naked eye, let alone through the camera’s viewfinder. It’s not the most artistically pleasing photograph ever made, but I like it for its technical merits.
I was encouraged to take a shot like this by Justin who introduced me to the concept of photographing stars. The spots you see in the sky (in the larger version) aren’t hot pixels, and they aren’t planes. They are indeed stars (or planets). What’s most interesting is that, if you view the full version of this image, you can see that the stars aren’t dots but instead diagonal lines. No, I didn’t move the camera. You can tell by the sharpness of the electrical towers. This happens because the Earth is spinning and the stars themselves are orbiting the center of our galaxy. Everything is moving. Stars move a lot more than you think in 30 seconds. I’m not sure if the bright spot behind the tower on the far right is a star or a planet or just a light. I don’t remember a light being there, but it is much brighter than the rest and doesn’t have the diagonal pattern. This shot was taken with the camera pointed, approx., East by North East this evening at, approx., 10:45pm. Anyone have any idea what this might be?
I’d love to try a 10 minute exposure just to see how far they move. However, the camera’s timer maxes out at 30 seconds. It has a “bulb” option but I don’t know if it would stay open for longer than 30 seconds even in that mode. Even if it would, I don’t know of a lockable shutter release available for this camera that would keep me from having to hold the shutter release myself (and shake the camera) for 10 minutes.
I used Phocal, an application for my Nokia 3650 phone, to calculate the hyperfocal distance to ensure I would have the maximum amount of “in focus” area since I had to use such a wide aperture to keep within 30 seconds of exposure time. I highly recommend it to all Photographers who are also 3650 owners.