at the Consumnes River Bird Sanctuary

so i was out in the woods last night and i took this photo.  i would have taken some more time to make better photos but the area i was in wasn’t supposed to be photographed, so i put my camera on top of the car and pointed it at the sky in order to try some star trail photos.  i made this at iso 400, f3.5, 28mm focal length, for about 6 minutes exposure.  in the past when i’ve made 10 minute pictures, there has been too much noise to cover up in photoshop.  looking at this image, there is much less noise.  i think less than 10 minutes might be best for capturing less noisy pictures.  at iso 100 the camera wouldn’t make as much image.  i haven’t tried 200 yet.  perhaps next time.  theoretically if the iso is lower, there would be less noise, and perhaps at 12 mintues rather than 6, there would be better star trails.  but then again, considering that my camera sensor is being worked that whole time, that might be the factor, in determining its sweet spot.  i want to do this with my film camera, but i’m waiting for the right time.  plus my nikon f2, which is my camera with the best lenses (aside from the mamiya), doesn’t have a cable release, and i’m only able to shoot for 8 seconds max with its nobs.  so i use the digital camera for my experiements.  recently i picked up a ricoh 500g, which is a little cheapo rangefinder with a blub mode; i used it to make a star trails photo, again pointing straight into the sky because otherwise the illuminated sacramento foreground would have been too bright… anyways, we will see how that turns out once developed.  okay, i typed enough.  peace.

#19

I’m in the mood for cropping old photos. I think this looks good, not sure I’ve shared it yet in full size..

Testing out my new Ricoh 500G.  Its a rangefinder with a 40mm lens @ f2.8, and total manual control for only 40 dollars.  its shit plastic quality.  but fun to use.  very light and quiet .