startrailtest

As my first star trail ever, I've learnt a lot. One can't easily expect it all to work for the first time. Location is definitely key. While I escaped the painful light pollution of the city, thinking that a few truck lights in the photos would make it look nice certainly didn't. Well, not in my eyes. However as I'm always learning new things, it doesn't hurt to show where you start off, and where you finish.

Location number 1, Lake Moogerah turned out to be a bust as after about 10 minutes of setting up, some clouds rolled in over the mountains and started to cover the stars. After 30 minutes, we pulled pitch, and drove away.

Location number 2, Warrill View on the corner of Cunningham Highway and Bath Street turned out a little park that I could drive into. While it was cold (well for summer, 13 degrees with a small breeze and fog is damn cold), photography went on for about 3 hours. In discovery, fogging lens is a pain in the butt. Every 10th shot of 30sec exposures would require the lens getting a quick de-fogging. It got worse when I was attempting 4 minute exposures.

However, this picture is the result of quite a few hours of experimentation.