Shooting and Startrails

[Farktographer]

I went camping (do you call it camping if you use a cabin? I usually don’t, but eh…) last weekend and caught some pretty fun shots. Constructive criticism is definitely welcome! I still have a lot to learn.

We drove up to Idyllwild, CA with loads of TV’s and computers to shoot at. I hadn’t shot a gun in a decade, so that in itself was an experience.

I tried to get some action shots of the shooting, but since I didn’t want to stand in front of the guns (obvious reasons?) I had to stick with hands and guns. I guess that might come in handy with the upcoming contest, though.

Some of the damage…

I used a rear-flash to capture the falling snow we had on our way back to the cabin.

We got to drinking (as a group of people in their late 20’s are wont to do) and I had a one-track mind to get some startrail pictures. I was motivated by the wonderful shots captured by everyone in the Stars contest, particularly U-man’s startrails. I stumbled my way from the cabin in the snow – luckily the clouds had cleared, and I was able to set up my camera and walk away for half an hour at a time. I couldn’t even see anything through the viewfinder because it was too dark, so I just hoped for the best and waited thirty minutes.

After that first attempt, I saw the way the earth had moved and pointed the camera to what I guessed was Polaris (again, too drunk at the time to just find it using conventional methods) and got these shots:

Playing with the white balance, I was able to get it back to a more natural-looking (but maybe not as cool?) color:

Anyways, there’s my first gallery 😀 Any tips or hints would be greatly appreciated.

[nobigdeal]

Nice job! I like the more purple tinge on the sky myself.

[olavf]

Good jorb! You should drink more often 😉

[lokisbong]

Nice star trails pictures. I cannot wait for the weather to clear up here So I can go out and get some more star trail shots.

[Kestrana]

I like

[ravnostic]

Guns, cameras, and old electronics–what’s not to love?

[Farktographer]

Thanks, everyone. NoBigDeal, I agree – I personally like the startrails with the colder purple tinge to it. olavf, I’ll take that as a direct order from a mod, so YES, SIR!

[CauseISaidSo]

I meant to comment on this earlier but forgot.

1) I’m jealous of your shooting spree! I had a plasma TV go bad that I really, really wanted to shoot up, but had no place to drag it to. The shooting ranges round here tend to frown on that and I don’t know anyone with enough land outside city limits.

2) Echoing what everyone else said, good job on the star trails, especially for shooting while buzzed. 🙂

[ravnostic]

Much like. The white-balance adjustment messes with the snow on the trees; I’d let it be (and imho the sky is better blue–it means little or no light pollution or otherwise pollution, and you have it in spades.) Shot, er, image # 2 would be good for hands with maybe light curves? Love the bokeh on that one. It lends itself to the axial rotation in the gun.

[Kestrana]

So I was going to ask this earlier, but how did you come to join us here?

[Farktographer]

CauseISaidSo I’m not sure of the legality of where we were shooting, but it’s somewhere a lot of locals go to shoot, so it’s just a known spot for it 😈

ravnostic, thanks for the tips. I’m more particular of the one without the white balance change, too…just looks prettier, hah. I’ve got some other hands ones for the contest later, but I’d definitely have to play with the light curves if I were to submit pic number two, I agree.

Kestrana – one of my roommates showed me Fark about 6 years ago while we were in a lab. I started following it periodically, then forgetting about it, then finding it again. I never made a handle or anything of that sort – I’d just browse the stories. This year I finally got a nice DSLR, and started getting really into photography (I had always taken a ton of pictures with my point and shoot, but the quality just wasn’t what I wanted so it never developed into anything serious). Then I saw fark one day when it had the photo contest – and I signed up the next week to participate 😛 It’s been a match 6 years in the making – I just needed the right timing to check the site and a decent camera.

[Kestrana]

Well, welcome!

[Farktographer]

Thanks 🙂 I’m glad to be here and I’m learning a lot – (and the more I know, the more I know I don’t know, so that learning’s going to be increasing a LOT hah)

[Kestrana]

Thanks 🙂 I’m glad to be here and I’m learning a lot – (and the more I know, the more I know I don’t know, so that learning’s going to be increasing a LOT hah)

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