Starry Sunrise...

[Remorhaz]

I'd not managed to shoot the starry sky the night before so I was hoping a sunrise shoot at the same location would satisfy me.

It was just a five minute walk from where we were staying so I set the alarm for 4AM the night before planning for a 5:20AM sunrise and arriving at the location my usual one hour before.

What I hadn't factored in tho was that the change of daylight savings in New South Wales happened overnight so in fact sunrise was going to be at 6:20AM (effectively an hour later). I didn't really know this till I got to the location and after about half an hour of shooting - thought to myself - man it's still very dark with no hint of light on the horizon - whats happening with sunrise .

Jagged Milk


Above 4:25AM and a 25 second exposure wide open at ISO 4000 with the 16-35/4 at 16mm, below we have a similar composition this time with the Sigma 15mm fisheye - 30 seconds at f/3.2 and ISO 3200

Showin' the Way


I shot some other compositions for another 20 minutes or so and seeing it was still very dark with no hint of sunrise - finally grokked that I was an hour early

Figuring I probably had a little time to try some starry trails before twilight came in too strongly I headed over to where I'd shot some interesting southward facing test shots the night before. I climbed up the landward rock pillar once again and setup a shot southward over the seaside pillar of Wellington Rock.

At 5AM when I started the sequence the skies were nice and dark and the milky way was clearly visible. Just after 5:30AM twilight was really starting to show with clearly deep blue skies and fading stars so I stopped the sequence and hoped that the 29 frames I'd taken would be enough to show the starry trails.

The Promise

[zafra52]

The are a bit on the dark side on my monitor, but they are still very good. I like the first two best.

[ozimax]

Spectacular Rodney. You don't want to conduct an early morning/late evening star-photography course sometime? I'd be interested.

[biggerry]

as mentioned the other night, i like the last image what actually looks cool is the slight ramp up effect on the trails..

[bigsarg7]

I envy your ability to not turn the alarm off and roll back over to sleep...... thats where my problem lies!!

Great shots, enjoyed looking over them and your earlier shots form the previous night.

[Remorhaz]

Thanks Zafra & bigsarg

Spectacular Rodney. You don't want to conduct an early morning/late evening star-photography course sometime? I'd be interested.

Sure - Gerry and I have been doing quite a few stars as of late (I just ordered a new lens for doing some too - the Samyang 14mm f/2.

as mentioned the other night, i like the last image what actually looks cool is the slight ramp up effect on the trails..

Cheers mate - actually I believe they are ramping down - as it got towards twilight (and I manually adjusted the exposure/ISO too)