AstroLandscapes #70 - Solitude

[FenlandPaul]

One of the things I love most about being out in the landscape under the stars is the sense of solitude. It's a time in which life's only demands are those I choose to create; the rest of the world and its problems are a million miles away.

When night falls, here in the Fens the air becomes heavy with dew.  Gathering mists betray the shallowest of depressions in the fields. The honks of the ubiquitous geese, the excited whinny of little grebes, the shriek of muntjacs, the bark of foxes, the clumsy shuffling of a badger, all provide a reminder that under the enveloping darkness, the Fens teems with life.  Added to the starry dome above my head, the whole experience is visceral and I find myself at my most alive.

A couple of weeks ago, when much of the rest of the country was watching the football final, I felt I needed to get away from it all. There's a tranquil spot on the banks of the River Great Ouse that's only really accessible from the water - at night, I could be truly alone and just enjoy the company of the wildlife, the cool air off the river and the couple of hours of that deep, inky twilight we get at this time of year.  So I loaded up the kayak with my camera gear and took the 15 minute paddle down to my little spot, without much of a plan other than to enjoy the night.

Arriving as dusk deepened, I collected some firewood from the branches that had washed up during the lengthy floods we had earlier this year, and set a small campfire.  A small and short-lived noctilucent cloud display was a treat as the twilight dimmed and the moon set, and then I decided to simply capture the essence of the night in a single image.

Not long after starting the tracked shots for the sky, a thick dewy mist started to roll in, saturating everything (and making it very hard to keep the bulbous front element of the 14mm lens clear) and cutting short the evening.  So I packed up the kayak, extinguished the fire and headed back out onto the water.  The mist made my headtorch blinding, so I switched it off and enjoyed a gloriously peaceful paddle through the night back to the car - a perfect end to an evening that replenished me.

You can watch a film I made of the evening over on my Nightscape Journals channel, linked below. Hope you enjoy the image - by no means a competition winner, but one that takes me back to a very special time. 😊

✨SOLITUDE✨

 

📷 Canon 6D (astro-modified), Samyang 14mm f/2.8 lens and MoveShootMove Nomad tracker

🔧 Foreground: 1x 5s exposure at ISO3200 and f/4. Sky: 17x 60s tracked exposures at ISO800 and f/2.8 

🎞️ Stacked in Sequator. Blended and edited in PhotoShop

 

 

[davew]

My goodness ! A video that needs to be watched at least twice. Once for the beauty of the night and the ASMR feel and another to be blown away by how much time and effort went into it.

Just wow !

Dave.

[FenlandPaul]

9 minutes ago, davew said:

My goodness ! A video that needs to be watched at least twice. Once for the beauty of the night and the ASMR feel and another to be blown away by how much time and effort went into it.

Just wow !

Dave.

Thank you, Dave - that’s really kind of you. It was a lot of fun to make. Thanks for the support. 😊

[Scooot]

That’s a lovely video, thoroughly enjoyed it, thank you.

[FenlandPaul]

4 hours ago, Scooot said:

That’s a lovely video, thoroughly enjoyed it, thank you.

Thank you - glad you enjoyed it!

[saac]

Paul I've often thought that what comes across very strongly in your work is that you clearly have a great affinity for the fenlands. You have a real skill in showing the natural beauty of an often overlooked area. Your love for the fens really shines out and this is another outstanding piece of work. 

Jim 

Edited August 4 by saac

[FenlandPaul]

3 hours ago, saac said:

Paul I've often thought that what comes across very strongly in your work is that you clearly have a great affinity for the fenlands. You have a real skill in showing the natural beauty of an often overlooked area. Your love for the fens really shines out and this is another outstanding piece of work. 

Jim 

Thank you, Jim, that’s very kind of you to say. I have found charm in the Fens during the nearly 18 years that we’ve been here. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy getting out to the mountains or coast as well - you have to work quite hard to find appealing subject matter in the Fens!!

Paul

[jjohnson3803]

One thing I've wondered about on various outdoor vids - when you do a drone shot of paddling or hiking or whatever, are you controlling the drone while you paddle or do you have a helper?  Seems like it would be difficult to paddle and use joysticks at the same time, but I have no knowledge of drones.

 

[FenlandPaul]

1 hour ago, jjohnson3803 said:

One thing I've wondered about on various outdoor vids - when you do a drone shot of paddling or hiking or whatever, are you controlling the drone while you paddle or do you have a helper?  Seems like it would be difficult to paddle and use joysticks at the same time, but I have no knowledge of drones.

 

Well all I can do is tell you what I do! I don’t have a helper, alas (although I’m hoping to rope my wife into some of these trips soon!). So I launch the drone from the kayak, get it in position and then leave it flying while I paddle into / out of the shot. Catching the drone while on the water is another matter - it turns out drifting along the water with the current, and trying to land the drone is quite difficult, so I had to wedge myself in some reeds to keep the boat as still as possible.

For some of the shots of the car etc, there are amazing automations in modern drones that will recognise a person / vehicle etc and lock on to it, and then carry out some pre-programmed flight routines. They’re amazing bits of kit that give really useful footage with relative ease for a complete novice like me!!