The unplanned trip...

Hey Folks, 

Its been a while since my last Blog so apologies for that, thankfully its been a busy couple of months. Hopefully get back on track with these Blogs. Also some pretty exciting news on the way in the next month or to so keep an eye out on my Facebook page for that.

The unplanned trip...

They say the best times are the times that aren't planned... Well Thursday the 31st of August I defiantly found evidence of that. After a long day I toyed with the idea to head shooting  Astro at Glendalough Upper Lake in Co.Wicklow. I gave my good pal Colm Keating (Colm Keating Photography) on FB a call and he didn't have to think twice about coming to shoot the stars. We decided to try make it for sunset, I didn't quite make it but Colm did and got some crackers. As the sky darkened we went to the Glendalough Hotel for some grub.


After we finished eating the sky was dark enough to get shooting, albeit with a bit of a moon to mess around with. The moon out meant we could get clean sharp images with little noise. The down side being that because the moon was high and bright it did mean less stars would be visible but the moon was setting just after midnight so we decided... shots with moon, sleep, shots (and milky way) at 3.30am without the moon, then more sleep and finally up at 6am for sunrise. The weather was looking to be in our favour for the whole night with no wind whatsoever and again for sunrise so we were very optimistic. Below is my favourite shot from shooting the stars when the moon was still high in the sky... I do love a selfie!


After shooting for about an hour with the moon I jumped into my makeshift bed in the van and boy jaaaysus it was comfy! Alarm set for 3.15am to get up for more astro, this time minus the moon and plus the Milky Way. I have to say it wasn't great putting on wet bottoms that hour of the morning but that was soon forgotten when we approached the shore of the Upper Lake to the view of millions of epic stars. We pretty much knew what we wanted to shoot so didn't have to stay out shooting long, I was going for the classic view looking dead on down the valley shooting in portrait to get as much stars as possible in view. I was shooting with the Nikon D750 and using Samyang 14mm 2.8 Lens (great little budget astro lens). Using the 14mm allowed me to get a massive field of view, using the rule of thirds I used 1/3 for foreground to get some of the stars reflecting in the lake and 2/3 sky. Below is the final shot looking down the valley with some Milky Way over it.


About 4.30am I hit the makeshift bed again... Alarm set for 6am to throw on the wet bottoms (result of always getting in the bloody water). When the alarm went off I looked and felt like a Zombie, a smelly one at that. A quick shake of the head and we set off to the lake shore again. It was still a half hour to sunrise and our shot would also be aimed 180 degrees away from the sun, again shooting down the valley. Our hope was to get some slight side light on the tips of the hills either side of the valley... Well my god we did not expect what came next. I don't think I, personally have ever seen a cloud light up like it did given that it was completely opposite the sun. There was slight panic first, as there always is when you get the right light because you just never know how long the colour is going to last. In this case it must have lasted a good 15/20 minutes, we just couldn't believe our luck. As shoots go, this shoot is probably the best I've ever had with the best conditions and I still haven't got to most of the shots from it. The shot below really topped off the shoot and to say I went home happy would be an understatement.


If you have any questions regarding Tours, Workshops, Formatt-Hitech Filters or any advice on Camera Gear don't be afraid to drop me an email at bernard@bglandscapetours.ie.

For latest Tours and Workshops visit www.bglandscapetours.ie

Until next time folks.... take care.

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