The Maine Thing – Day 8

During the evening of our last day in Maine I walked outside my friend’s house and was struck by the most star-filled night sky I’ve ever seen. There was a very clear Milky Way and a tremendous number of stars. Having done some night image making before, I immediately set up the tripod and camera for some long exposures. The sky was great, but I wanted something more in the image. I needed something to ground it.

Composing at night can be tough, but I knew anything I included other than sky would be in silhouette. Well, anything except an alternate light source or something reflecting that light source.

My daughter had just gone up to her room and turned on her light. My first thought was to have her turn it off. Then I realized that the window would be a great addition, as would the warm incandescent light. This image was made with a Canon Eos 5D Mark II and Canon EF 17-40mm f4.0 L lens. I used an electronic cable release, and in Bulb setting counted to 30 in my head.

Window to the Night Sky (c) 2012 Paul Grecian

*************************************************************

Outer Banks, NC at Night

Watching Hurricane Earl on television as it’s just offshore of the Outer Banks in North Carolina, I feel for the people who are being forced to leave the Outer Banks and their homes. Parts of Route 12 can be difficult even in good weather and driving in miles of traffic congestion has got to be scary when you know a storm is coming. I wish all the evacuees the best.

I am thankful that we had calmer weather during our stay around Duck, NC last week. In fact, toward the end of the week we had a few starry sky nights that allowed me to do some work on a moon-lit beach. The combination of moonlight and artificial light sources from the beachfront properties, made for interesting and evocative conditions.

This image was made looking north along the beach in front of where we were staying. The houses are all lit with their interior lights and the beach is a wash with moonlight. I tried several different exposures using the Bulb setting and counted out loud while holding the button on the cable release. Using a Canon 5D Mark II with a Canon 17-40mm L lens wide open at f4, this was about a 15 second exposure. The RAW image was then processed in Photoshop CS4 with levels and perspective adjustments made. I was pleased to see a very clear Big Dipper evident in the sky, but a close look shows a sky full of stars. Still, the Big Dipper is iconic and I emphasize that constellation in the image to make it as clear as I remembered it.

Outer Banks, NC at Night

**************************************************************

Starry Night – Colonial Williamsburg

Maybe the most important home of any in Williamsburg is that of George Wythe, signer of the Declaration of Independence and mentor to Thomas Jefferson (who spend a great deal of time in the Wythe House). Going through the Wythe house, an original building not a recreation, is an experience of going back in time. Of course Colonial Williamsburg cannot totally portray the feeling of the town as it was. But when dark, it is a little easier to imagine that you are actually there in 1776. That has been part of my motivation to begin photographing there at night.

This image was made with a Canon EOS Xti on a tripod with a EFS 17-55 f2.8 lens at f2.8 and 10 Sec. Focusing was easier on this image as there was sufficient artificial light falling on the building.

***************************************************************

Governor’s Palace

Just returned from another trip to Colonial Williamsburg. We stayed at the Williamsburg Lodge which is nicely situated right in the historic area. This gave us freedom to walk to and from our room from anywhere in the historic area and me freedom to pickup and go photograph as I pleased.

The gardens were not at their peak during this trip, so I took it as an opportunity to work with a Lensbaby and to do some night photography. When you have been to a location often, creatively it becomes harder to stretch visually. So working with a new lens and during a different time of day provided me some much needed variety in image making.

The image below is one I visualized before the trip when I saw the weather forecast promised a clear night. I knew from previous trips that there would be enough artificial ambient light to allow the Governor’s Palace to be seen, but not so much as to obscure the stars in a clear night sky. I made this image with a Canon 17-55 f2.8 EFS lens wide open and at ISO 400 to keep a reasonably fast shutter speed of 10 sec. (short enough to prevent star streaking).

The Palace is a reconstruction of the original building on this site where several royal governors and both Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson served. The foundation is original, some of which can be seen in the cellar. It’s an amazing building with beautiful grounds and a centerpiece for the town. Photographing it at night was a special experience, especially as I was in earshot of the militia practicing at the magazine (at around 9:30 pm).

*************************************************************