Dipping in

I have one more star-focused photo for you this weekend, and then we’ll be switching back to other items for a while.

I took this one the same night I took yesterday’s photo. It was, however, a lot more difficult to capture.

In the photo I shared yesterday, the lights along the lake would show up nicely in both my viewfinder and on the digital screen on the back of my camera. These stars, however, weren’t bright enough to appear on either. So while I knew I wanted to capture the big dipper constellation, I had no way of accurately aiming my camera at it, never mind focusing on the stars.

That didn’t stop me from trying. I managed to find the right focus setting on my second attempt (turned out I needed to set the focus ring to the longest distance possible), and, after some slight adjustments, I got the constellation fully in frame on my fourth try. Admittedly, it took some Photoshop-cropping to centre it, but that was an easy enough adjustment.

I have to admit, it feels good to know I can capture this sort of picture. While I’ve done a little bit of night photography in the past, this was my first time attempting a constellation shot. There are a couple of adjustments I would have liked to make, but, all in all, I don’t think it came out too bad.