Night Moves

The alarm beeped and I reached over to turn it off. Dang thing.

What did it go off for? Who set that alarm for 1:30 am? Oh. I did.
I was going to get up and see where the Milky Way was and I'd set up my camera to try a shot of the night sky.

I had pre-focused my Nikon D5200 just before sunset and had it locked on infinity in hopes that using the 35mm prime lens would give me enough sky to capture some stars.

I shot this at a 20 second exposure with an f stop on the lens of 1.8 and an ISO of 100.
What I saw on my screen afterwards was nearly totally black.

I took another shot on the other side of the house looking north.

I could see a bit more of the stars on my screen. But I wasn't happy with it.
So I changed up the settings and did some light painting.

I used a LED flashlight for about one second on this shot, just clicked on and off quickly.
I could see this on the monitor.

So I tried another experiment. I wanted to take a shot of the porch.
Note to self. Once I took the camera off from the infinity setting and used the Auto focus to take a shot of the skull, the camera would not focus for me. I even tried manual focus.

Frustrated, I set the exposure to 10 seconds and then flipped the little flashlight I had across the porch...

Early this morning the alarm went off at 1:30 again. I sighed and shut it off. I shut my eyes and soon I was wide awake. I glanced up through the window and the stars were bright. The weather folks were wrong!

I grabbed the camera. I thought I'd set it up properly.
However...

I hadn't. The focus was off and I didn't know that until I opened the photos later this morning.
However, I do know where the Milky Way is around 2am now.
And have an idea of where to get shots of it from the yard.

So I will set things up again for another try tonight.

Settings for these shots were 20 seconds, f 1.8 [35mm lens], 640 ISO and 800 ISO.

Tonight I will set up the 35mm lens again and set up the 18-55mm lens to see if I can't get a wider angle.

My husband thinks I am certifiably crazy.

I say, I need to keep experimenting and challenging myself.

Paradise.... Springs and other thoughts about photography.

At the end of our K-town visit, Morris and I stopped at Paradise Springs for a short walk.
The sun was out and it was still early morning.
It was a Monday and not a soul was around. I let Morris off the leash and we explored the old dam and the spring house.

Here is part of the old dam.

I don't know enough history about this place but I know that I will stop here on my next trip across the state. It is in a round about way...sort of on my way.

It wasn't just the neat little places where one could photograph moving water, but the stone structure was fascinating and quite beautiful.

The inside of the spring house had a wide shallow pool in it. I loved the reflections from outside of the building to inside the building.

 Looking down into the shallow pool I realized I could see the building walls above me along with trees and the leaves under the water below.

 The field stone of the building added a nice texture too.

Here is a link with photos to Paradise Springs. WI DNR Paradise Springs.

Mr. Morris and I explored and were able to take our time setting up photos as we had the place to ourselves.
However, while we were taking a break enjoying the pond view we did see one person walk quickly up the trail and take a snapshot with their cell phone.
I waved, she waved, and then she quickly turned and left.

My weekend trip was incredible. I visited quite a few parks along the shores of Lake Michigan. I seem drawn to water quite a bit.

I also am learning some other things regarding photography. I am discovering that I enjoy having a photo that tells a story more often than just a beautiful photo.

I keep wondering where I will go with this 'hobby'.
I was sure I would hate Still Life, but love it. I am learning about off camera flashes when I knew I would never use a flash..ever!
I am getting a keen interest in portraits. Oh and I knew I would never ever in a million years want to photograph humans!

The nice thing about this hobby is that it can keep growing.

35mm Prime Nikon Lens

I went ahead and did it.  I ordered a new Prime lens for my Nikon cameras.
I received it yesterday, a 35mm lens.

I ran a quick test on it when I got home, shooting in very low light in the house.

Here is my test subject wrapped in camouflage.  I couldn't get a good shot in anything other than an f stop of 1.8 but the hairs on his nose came out crystal clear and I was rather close to him.

Morris really wasn't too excited about having a camera lens shoved in his face.  But he allowed me to wrap him up in the sheet for the photo.
Good dog.

So this morning I decided to take the lens for a test run on my Nikon D3200.  

I was not disappointed.
However since I didn't check the status of the camera's battery before I left, I had to pick and choose my shots very carefully.
Reminder to self.  Check your battery!  I thought two bars was good enough but very quickly it became one bar.

Here is a shot that is cropped shot at f4, 320, ISO 100. The colors came out wonderfully accurate and very little noise for shooting predawn.

With a slight edit, I was able to pull out some more detail.

So I did a few more shots.  These are cropped a bit specifically to take out a bit of the foreground.
I did purchase the lens for both portraits and landscapes.

[The horizon is not crooked this is a hilly area!]

I'm perfectly happy with this lens.  For landscapes it gives me a broader view.  This of course leaves me in a quandary.  
I have a harder time deciding which lens to put on the camera for taking a hike.

Thank goodness for my new little sling backpack, I can pack two lenses along with the camera and change them easily.

The colors are beginning to look bright in the trees so I guess you can figure out what I am going to try and do today.

Yep, laundry, house cleaning, and ... a field trip to look for cool fall things.