An Evening with the Stars


by Mark Humpage, Elemental Photographer



back in bed. What a life, I sighed and headed back
outside. It was a golden opportunity to attempt a star
trail shot. To leave the camera running and capture a

two hour period would hopefully yield the effect of

earth's rotation via a visible star trail. It was

something I had tried before but failed due to

overexposure and noise. However this time I had a

cunning plan.


Not an Os

car or Bafta in sight. Lots of snow and
The objective was to mount the camera (Olympus
extremely col

d. A recent British February that will stay
E3) on tripod with a good wide angle lens (7-14mm),
with memo

ry for a long time no doubt. Nothing to do
framing my snow laden property, and composing

with the deep snow carpeting many parts, closed
around the North Star, also called the Pole Star or

schools, frozen
Polaris (This is the star that the earth's axis points

roads or lack of gritters. No, for this
photographe
toward in the Northern sky, which means the other

r February 2009 will hold a special
memory.

stars will appear to rotate around it). I then attached


my time lapse controller (PClix) to fire every 60
The eveni

ng started off with all good domestic
seconds and set the camera to expose for 60
intentions. I recall loo

king at the outside temperature
seconds. I switched the Noise Reduction off (to
on my weath

er station, -8C and falling. Grabbing my
prevent double time exposure), set the camera in
boots and wi

nter woolies I dragged my mutt from her
manual mode, the aperture wide open to f4, manually
cosy warm

bed and into the Siberian blast of rural
focused on the property and pressed the go button. I
Leics for a

walk. Reluctantly she sunk, waist deep,
then went back indoors and joined the dog! It was
into the sno

w and rolled those 'Do we have to?' eyes
bitterly cold and I hoped the batteries would hold out.
at me. It was

cold, very cold. I recall thinking the last

time I had felt this cold was ba

ck in the Norwegian
At 11pm I wandered back outside and indeed it was
Arctic in 200

8. No aurora here tonight, but the dog
all still working fine. I switched off, disassembled and
walk was cut

short. She was eternally grateful too,
carried all the equipment back to the house. I
bobbing ba ck through the deep snow like an excited
wrapped the camera inside a plastic bag and then
lamb on a Spring morning.
took it indoors and waited for half an hour to regain

ambient house temperature. A good tip that, which
I was witnessing something very special indeed. The
prevents condensation forming in the camera.
nearly full moon was glowing and beaming its

nocturnal rays down onto the snow laden fields. It was
I recall looking at the images via the LCD first and
amazingly bright. I switched off my torch and it was

couldn't understand why they looked so dark. I was
like daylight. It was now 9pm. Pretty scary stuff

expecting something much brighter, if not on the
actually. I looked up and the sky looked intensely

verge of overexposure, for a 60 second frame. I then
black with stars sparkling like diamonds. It was the

revealed the info to find each exposure was in fact 15
first clear sky night for a good few weeks and I just

seconds and not 60. Aaaaargh! It took me a while to
had to get the camera out.

work out what had gone wrong. Eventually I found


out the power pack was slightly loose and the
Hurrying back to the house I rushed in and grabbed

camera had reset itself whilst setting up, without me
the camera gear. The dog was all ready curled up and

knowing.


Mark Humpage | Adventurer - Photographer - Stormchaser - Writer
www.elementalproject.com | www.markhumpage.com
Tel: 01455 559155 | Mobile 07966 770430


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