Posted by Matt McClellan on October 20, 2009 at 10:29 PM
Just checking. I'm gonna try something new - never shot meteors before. I wonder if it's kinda like shooting fireworks? For all the Conway crew, me and a friend will be out at Toad Suck Park at 4:30am if you want to join us.
Posted by Larry Fischer on October 21, 2009 at 7:45 AM
I've shot some meteors.
I have two cameras, D300 and D700.
I establish my exposures based on about 20 secs by adjusting ISO and aperature. Shoot several for your conditions to establish what you want. I want to see good stars with a black sky.
Then I set my camera on auto sequencing and shoot mulitple pics in the direction of the radiant with one camera and about 90 degrees from the radiant with the second camera. I can go and do other things. My cameras can shoot up to 999 photos if the card will hold them. I shoot for varying periods depending on the intensity of the show. jpegs are probably the way to go if you shoot a high number.
Sometimes I get excited to find, upon enlargement, it is only an airplane track.... lots of those.
Wide angle to standard 50 mm lenses are probably the best.
You really need to get away from the city lights Matt - up on Petit Jean would be a lot better. I've always found meteor showers to be a big yawn. You end up with a scratch or two across the sky - you can get this at any time of the year. We did a shoot once where every time a shooting star was sighted we opened up a new bottle of the bubbly and passed it around (had a lot left over from a New Year's Party). The pictures were bleak as always, but it was much more fun than normal! Just don't get too close to the edge of the bluff if doing this...
Yeah Tim, I thought Toad Suck Park would be outside Conway enough but it wasn't. Still a lot of ambient light coming from the city. We were committed enough to get up early and go shoot, but not enough to drive and hour away to do it.
You were right - it was a big yawn - but I still had fun and got an interesting photo that I'll post later of the river and stars.
By the way, I've seen people post photos in their replies. How do you do that? When I try it just comes up as a link.
Discussion
3 repliesI have two cameras, D300 and D700.
I establish my exposures based on about 20 secs by adjusting ISO and aperature. Shoot several for your conditions to establish what you want. I want to see good stars with a black sky.
Then I set my camera on auto sequencing and shoot mulitple pics in the direction of the radiant with one camera and about 90 degrees from the radiant with the second camera. I can go and do other things. My cameras can shoot up to 999 photos if the card will hold them. I shoot for varying periods depending on the intensity of the show. jpegs are probably the way to go if you shoot a high number.
Sometimes I get excited to find, upon enlargement, it is only an airplane track.... lots of those.
Wide angle to standard 50 mm lenses are probably the best.
We are cloudy tonight as we were last night.
the fisch
You were right - it was a big yawn - but I still had fun and got an interesting photo that I'll post later of the river and stars.
By the way, I've seen people post photos in their replies. How do you do that? When I try it just comes up as a link.