Claudina and I headed up to the Miramichi on Thursday the 31st March. She was the keynote speaker for that regions International Woman’s Day, I was the dog minder, driver and enthusiastic supporter. While in the Miramichi I had wanted to try a couple of night shots more specifically star trails.
There are plenty of resources on the web on how to approach your star trails, the best I have seen coming from my old home base in Southern Africa – have a look at this (star trail). Basically there are two methods of taking star trails that I know of.
1. Long exposure (30 minutes and more, 11 hours if you want a full circle) and
2. A series of shots of approximately 4 minutes each.
For me the second option is the best especially in cold weather where the temperature shortens battery life significantly (even on a good day my battery will not last longer than 2 hours). So unless you are hooked up to the mains you don’t want to risk your battery dying halfway through the shot.
Important aspects to take into account when shooting star trails are as follows: you need to know where north and south is why? You need to face either of these directions if you want a typical circle of stars – face west or east and the star trails will be straight.
It needs to be dark – ambient light will drown out the stars. That means the moon which is the major source of light in the night sky (thanks to it acting as a giant reflector for the sun) is a no-no and you need to shoot under a new moon.
- You need a very stable base – tripod.
- Bulb exposure – or cable release.
- Charged batteries.
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| Basilica of St. Michael the Archangel |
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| Basilica of St. Michael the Archangel |
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| Basilica of St. Michael the Archangel |
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| Basilica of St. Michael the Archangel |
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