Shooting the Night Sky
Finally! I spent the last week shooting the night sky.
It has been great to finally get out shooting the night sky and to work out how it should be done and also how not to do it!! I did some research online and looked through some of Karl Taylor's training DVD's to find some basic technical settings to work from. As with most of photography, once you're in the field you need to adapt to the environment and to your objective for taking a particular image.
I looked on Dave Morrow's website. He provides a fantastic tutorial and outlines exactly what is needed. His images are a wonderful inspiration and well worth a look!
While looking for a good set up for the time-lapse I fired off a few test shots to make sure I had the settings correct in the camera. The image below is a 30 second exposure shot at F2.8 at ISO 5000.
The key to night time shooting is to ensure the focus is spot on. In the image below I focussed the lens to infinity - on a Canon lens there is a small symbol to help out.
Unfortunately by the time I had finally managed to set up the time-lapse, which proved to be quite difficult in the near dark, I had somehow knocked the focus ring off infinity and the video below highlights this as nothing is in focus!!
Another thing I learnt was just how much light the moon generates. You can see just how bright the video became as the moon rose.
Not a brilliant video, but a good starting point and definitely some important must do's and don't do's were learnt.
--- Best watched full screen in HD ---
The video below was my second attempt. This time I got the infinity marker on the lens spot on. You'll see at 4 seconds into the clip the screen goes blurry, this is because I ended up with moisture on the lens from the dropping temperature. I didn't notice it for a while and not long after I cleared it the clouds came in and settled for the evening.
However, I am happy with the end result and it gives me a good idea how to get them spot on in the future.
--- Best watched full screen in HD ---
While my time-lapse videos weren't perfect I did manage to have much more joy with my still images. The best of which are below:
Cultural trip to the capital
Set off for Dublin at 6am on Wednesday to get my 'culture on'.
The Agnes Obel gig at Vicar St. wasn't starting until 8.30pm, but I thought I would get there early and have a mooch about.
First point of call, after dropping the van off, was the Natural History Museum off Merrion Square. Having swotted up on some old David Attenborough DVD's over the weekend I was keen to see if they had a Numbat, Pica and maybe even a baby sloth on display.
Although small in size it was packed with animals and birds in cases, mounted on the walls and hanging from the ceiling.
With my small mammals checklist complete I then popped next door to the Irish National Gallery, which I have to say was a little disappointing. It may have been that they only had on display a small selection from their permanent collection or the fact that I have been spoilt with London galleries but I did leave with a sense of being unfulfilled, artistically speaking.
My favourite painting was a portrait by William Orpen of the Irish tenor Count John McCormack http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCormack_(tenor)
After the early start and the walk across Dublin it was time for a spot of lunch before checking in to the hotel. I was drawn to a restaurant called Elephant & Castle in Temple Bar. It may have been the name reminding me of London or it may have been that it was the least 'halloween themed' restaurant I could find. Either way the food on offer was very good and it gave me a chance to plan for the afternoon.
Afternoon Session
Gallery of Photography
They had an exhibition by the National Women's Council of Ireland called 'Still, We Work'. I couldn't really engage with the imagery in the exhibition, it left me cold. It was clearly pitched at those of a deeper artistic knowledge then myself.
The book shop was good and I stumbled across a magazine called Source. I've been following their endeavours online for the last couple of months and they have provided me with some brilliant photography blogs.
National Photographic Archive
Had a collection of vintage black and white images on display of Irish workers. Everything from soap makers to boat builders were highlighted.
FilmBase
Had a great exhibition in their foyer of Eamonn Farrell's 'Elements of Nature'. He has taken a series of images showcasing the nude form set amongst the Irish landscape.
You can view his images on his website - www.eamonnfarrell.com
Evening Session
I got to Vicar Street at 8pm. The gig was due to start at 8.30pm but I got there a little early to enjoy a beer hoping to take the edge off 'going solo'.
There wasn't any information on a warm up act so I was surprised when Erin Lang of Feral & Stray took to the stage. However I was pleasantly surprised by her style of music and was enthralled throughout her short set.
“Feral & Stray play songs about the depth of shadows, sailboats across oceans and lightning struck cityscapes. Dream Pop with spooky effected guitar and whisper soft vocals make darkly intimate soundscapes that move to the nightmarish and haunted detailed and dark secrets of hearts.”
Agnes Obel came on stage just before 9.30pm and played a number of songs from her debut album 'Philharmonics' along with a number of songs from her new album 'Aventine'. It was brilliant to finally see her live, having first been 'put on' to her back in 2010 by Dada Records (unfortunately no longer in business). Agnes was on vocals and piano and was accompanied by cellist and violinist.
“Agnes Obel’s pristine, delicate 2010 debut, Philharmonics, was an unexpected platinum-selling sensation in her home country of Denmark, and a hit throughout Europe. The sudden fame left her reeling, and on Aventine, the classically trained pianist/singer has tried to make sense of things. Accompanied mainly by a single cellist, she has created a quiet, watchful record – a response to having spent 18 months in “a blur” of touring. The lyrics are impressionistic sketches (on Fuel to Fire, she sighs: “Roses on parade, they follow you round”), suggesting she saved the real firepower for the exquisite arrangements: sculpting strings and piano into beautifully melancholy ripples.
Like Ane Brun and Seventh Tree-era Alison Goldfrapp, Obel is exceedingly good at conveying weariness and disorientation through sound: Run Cried the Crawling’s pizzicato-plucked cello and otherworldly violin-swoops evoke the desolation of being awake at 3am, as do The Curse’s precise droplets of strings and vocals. A wonderful autumn album.”
It was a great day in Dublin topped off with a fantastic gig. The drive back West the next morning was pleasant especially as I had both Agnes Obel's and Feral & Stray's new albums to listen to.
Fashion Shoot - Part 1
Following on from my self portrait session I was keen to test my new skills and kit on a less grizzly subject matter and I was fortunate enough to secure the services of Iwona Spochacz to model.
We were provided with a range of clothing from Helen at 'Passenger Boutique' in Clifden. Thanks also go to Grainne and Ronan at the Atlantic Hotel who kindly allowed us to use their function room.
The set up
I used a mixture of soft boxes and umbrellas on a three light system to create a range of lighting situations.
Passenger provided us with dresses, skirts, trousers, blouses, shirts, jackets, shoes and jewellery. In addition our model Iwona brought a selection of her own clothing and jewellery.
The shoot took place at the end of Clifden Arts week and you can still see hanging on the walls the exhibition 'Spaced Out' by artist Sean Halpenny.
Music is very important to help set the mood and to allow both the model and photographer to relax and follow the rhythm. My iPod was on shuffle, which meant anything from Aphex Twin to Motorhead; from Sigur Ros to The Wurzels!!
I had a number of photo books on hand to help with inspiration and poses.
The Shoot
We played around with a number of different lighting set ups, backgrounds and poses. A selection of the best images can be seen below. Click on any of the thumbnails for a full screen view.
Due to the size of the backgound I had we were only able to shoot portrait and 3/4 length shots. In our second session we were able to use a full size background and therefore shoot full length images. Part 2 will be posted in the next few days.