Start Point Lighthouse and Blackpool Sands Beach - South Devon

[John Baker]

I have not been out doing astro for a while, here are a couple of shots from last night. We started at Start Point Lighthouse and my plan was to try to blend a short exposure of the light with a longer exposure of the sky. I had hoped to get a slightly elevated view of the light, to keep the beams below the horizon. After a lot of searching I did not find anywhere totally appropriate - We  ended up shooting from just below the public car park. We then moved back to Blackpool Sands, the beams of the light house were visible on the beach, but thankfully on the right side we found that the cliff masked the light. By 3:00 the Milky Way had moved higher in the sky making for some interesting shots.   Start Point shots taken on 1Dx fitted with a Tamron 15-30 f2.8 at 15mm, 30 second exposure at ISO 6,400.  The beach shots were up to ISO 12,800 at a variety of focal lengths, some at 15mm  (30") and others at 24mm (10") ....  The stack rock was illuminated with a small Nissin i40 flash fitted with a home made snoot to stop the light spilling across the shot, this is a great little 4 x AA battery gun, with variable  power output, for these it was turned down to 1/256th 

[laser_jock99]

Great set. Can't beat a good sea horizon.

[laudropb]

Another lovely set of images. Those skies look amazing.

[John Baker]

25 minutes ago, laudropb said:

Another lovely set of images. Those skies look amazing.

Totally agree, one of the joys of living on the south coast, but then you get the problem of lighthouses and possibly worst boat trails

26 minutes ago, laudropb said:

Another lovely set of images. Those skies look amazing.

Back out tonight, this time I will hopefully remember to turn the IS off  

[laser_jock99]

Boat trails and light houses add to the composition- reminds me of the photos I was taking off Rame Head in the 1980's!

 

 

Eddystone Lighthouse + various boats.

[John Baker]

1 hour ago, laser_jock99 said:

Boat trails and light houses add to the composition- reminds me of the photos I was taking off Rame Head in the 1980's!
Eddystone Lighthouse + various boats.

Love it, thankfully cameras have come a long way - Rame Head is on my bucket list for an astro shoot