I'm commercial photographer & digital media consultant living in Derby, UK & working everywhere. I'm passionate about what I do and who I do it for
I wakeboard and snowboard, love to travel and make Street photography where ever I go.
Thoughts & Photos of a Commercial Photographer
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Exmoor International Dark Sky Reserve, photographing star trails & Poaching!
Shot on the Canon 5D MKII with a Canon EF 14mm (f2.8 L MKII) lens at F4.0 ISO 200 for a duration of 4128 Seconds
Over the weekend whilst shooting in Devon, I ventured out with a friend to shoot the stars from the middle of Exmoor, the International Dark Sky Reserve.
As it was an impromptu decision we did not do a recce but naively decided to find a location in the dark.
The first issue arising from this was. Whilst stopping to look across the fields, a 4x4 stopped with the driver demanding to know what we were doing. We told him. He gruffly demanded to see our camera kit, which I politely declined to do so. He then manoeuvred his 4x4 to block us in and again requested to see our kit.
After a brief discourse it turned out he was a local landowner and thought we were armed poachers that had being targeting the area in a van similar to mine and claiming to be photographers! He turned out to be a friendly informative chap with a love of photography; I gave him a Card and showed him a few shots on my Ipad. He gave us some local info and directed us to the location we shot.
The down side of the location was the proximity to the road combined with the position of the tree (the only landmark of any description as far as the headlights could see). To include Polaris to ensure we recorded concentric star trails we had to face the road and the distant lights of Ilfracombe This led to a car head light trail and caused the warm colour temp in the bottom third of the image.
The second issue was not being aware of the local topography. Much to my delight and entertainment, I watched my friend stumble down a two foot high mound and land prostrate in a ditch of ice cold water!
The moral of the story is always do a recce!
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Tristan Poyser's Posterous
I'm commercial photographer & digital media consultant living in Derby, UK & working everywhere. I'm passionate about what I do and who I do it for
