Hello all,
Boy do I have a story of photography induced stupidity for you! Complete with some lovely pictures (none of which actually depict the stupidness with which I will regale you presently).
So it was a moonless night on Monday evening (or at least nearly moonless as I saw no moon). I had the date down on my calendar because I wanted to see just how many stars I could capture with a 30 second exposure, sensor sensitivity (ISO) jacked up and the fstop as low as possible. It was about -4 outside (really not that cold in northern terms), and a beautiful, cloudless night. It seemed I was longing for something white and fluffy anyways. I drove out to a spot I had taken night photos before, sufficiently far away from the lights of the town, and promptly found myself stuck in a snow drift/ditch. No matter what I did, even in the lowest gear on my four wheel drive vehicle, I could not get out. *HurrahHurrah* for the stupid photographer! is what I thought.
Thankfully I had cell service, saving me from having to walk home at midnight in the pitch black. I called CAA. I would be saved by a tow truck about an hour later. But what to do in that hour? Why, take photos of course! I am fairly pleased with the night, photographically speaking, and I hope it was worth all the trouble! You can be the judge.
Here is perhaps my favourite shot from the night. You can see a faint aurora at the bottom of the shot. Also, you might notice that the shot is not quite perfectly in focus. When it is this dark, you pretty much have to focus manually, and because I forgot to bring a strong flashlight, that means guessing for a while until you are happy with what you see.
Here is actually a shot from earlier on in the night. Let me introduce you to High Level’s beehive burner, the last wood waste burner to be found in a town in Alberta. It burns waste wood from the mill here nearly 24/7, taking a break only on Saturdays. It’s a bit of a black mark on the town environmentally, but it does make a good night-time subject.
That tiny light at the bottom of the photo is from the local golf course. What is difficult about composing a shot of the night sky is that you almost always need something more than just the sky. Even if your “subject” is something boring like a few trees, a telephone pole or a light off in the distance, it somehow gives purpose and placement to what would otherwise be a shot of a bunch of pinpricks on a black background.
Here is our lovely beehive burner a little closer for you. In case you are wondering, yes, a trail of smoke comes from the burner across the sky above High Level at all times of the day, and leaves behind tiny bits of sawdust on almost every surface in town given enough time. This shot is taken with about an eight second exposure, along time for sparks to fly and the smoke to become softer looking.
Here you can see the light from the faint aurora illuminating the edge of the horizon, giving a nice transition almost total black at the top of the shot.
With this last photo, I just want to stress again what a pain in the butt it was to compose these shots. I am literally shooting in the dark, seeing what I get, and then moving my tripod slightly to position my subjects (here a telephone pole and some trees) in the frame. I was also finally able to get the focus a sharper here. Nonetheless, the experience was great.
No matter how I try, I doubt I can capture the actual majesty of a moonless, artificial-lightness night with just the stars about. Though I expected this photo adventure to be a little scary as my usual photo-buddy was at work for the night, it was actually really relaxing. Surrounded by fields of snow, the night was nearly silent. If a predator were to approach, I like to think I could have heard him coming or spotted his silhouette with enough time to hide in my trapped vehicle. Believing that helped a lot.
I hope you liked the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them! Keep your stick on the ice and your car out of the snow banks 🙂
