ABOUT ME

Carrizo Plain National Monument, California, USA - image 1 - student project

I'm pretty new to photography, and before this project I'd experimented a little bit with astrophotography before - but with a ton of help from a photographer friend. This was the first time I tried out astrophotography on my own!

PLANNING / PREPARATION

LOCATION Carrizo Plain National Monument, California

Carrizo Plain National Monument, California, USA - image 2 - student project

DATE Night of November 9-10, 2013

Moonset: 11:24 PM
Illumination: 48,1%
Sunrise: 6:21 AM

NIGHT SKY INFO

Milky Way Direction: WNW (though I ended up shooting the opposite direction, too!)
Important Constellations: Cygnus, Cassiopeia
Bright Stars: Deneb

Carrizo Plain National Monument, California, USA - image 3 - student project

PACKING LIST

Camera: Canon EOS 6D
Lens: 14mm f/2.8
Tripod
Headlamp
Extra memory cards
Extra camera batteries
Extra headlamp batteries
Warm clothes, handwarmers, etc.
Android phone with Google Sky Maps app
Tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, pillow, earplugs
Foods!

PHOTOS

ABOUT THE SHOOT The location ended up being really cool - nice and dark, complete with dry lake bed, lookout point, and a kangaroo rat sighting!

TAKING SOME TEST SHOTS After some test exposures, I ended up using the same exposure settings the whole night (f/2.8, ISO 6400, 30 seconds).

Carrizo Plain National Monument, California, USA - image 4 - student project

Soda Lake, Carrizo Plain (f/2.8, ISO 5000, 30 seconds) - 11:58 PM, pointed northwest, unedited

MY BEST PHOTOS

Carrizo Plain National Monument, California, USA - image 5 - student project

(f/2.8, ISO 6400, 30 seconds) - 12:31 AM, pointed southeast

Carrizo Plain National Monument, California, USA - image 6 - student project

(f/2.8, ISO 6400, 30 seconds) - 12:34 AM, pointed southeast

Carrizo Plain National Monument, California, USA - image 7 - student project

(f/2.8, ISO 6400, 30 seconds) - 12:41 AM, pointed southeast

Carrizo Plain National Monument, California, USA - image 8 - student project

(f/2.8, ISO 6400, 30 seconds) - 1:30 AM, pointed southeast

Carrizo Plain National Monument, California, USA - image 9 - student project

(f/2.8, ISO 6400, 30 seconds) - 1:46 AM, pointed southeast

Carrizo Plain National Monument, California, USA - image 10 - student project

(f/2.8, ISO 6400, 30 seconds) - 2:18 AM, pointed southeast

And a few more neat ones:

Carrizo Plain National Monument, California, USA - image 11 - student project

(f/2.8, ISO 6400, 30 seconds) - 2:18 AM, pointed southeast

Carrizo Plain National Monument, California, USA - image 12 - student project

(f/2.8, ISO 6400, 30 seconds) - 12:22 AM, pointed northwest (this is the only one pointing this direction!)

BEFORE & AFTER

Not much editing was required for most of these photos, but I learned a lot in the process. Here's a before and after sample:

Carrizo Plain National Monument, California, USA - image 13 - student project

NOTES

Next time I should bring handwarmers. I should never underestimate how cold it might be. I was a little bit chilly the whole time.

I had a little bit of star trailing in my photos, so next time I head out for an astrophoto shoot, I'll try reducing the exposure time a tad.

I want to try this again on a clearer night. I think the clouds made editing a little tricky.

I originally planned to take two cameras, but I ended up just using one. Much simpler and easier to manage!

I had never tried processing nighttime photos before - so I learned a LOT about post-processing in this class, which was very helpful. I re-edited several of these shots before reaching an end result I was satisfied with. It was interesting to see how different my results were each time.

Carrizo Plain National Monument, California, USA - image 14 - student project

Diana Southern

Travel Blogger (StylishTravelGirl.com)

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