From Corry Berghout (Urban Group Leader):
[Info about the event follows plus a lot of great tips for this type of shooting and more of Marc Gaudet’s nightime images]
Star Trails and light painting at ruins on Mackenzie King’s Estate.
Organizer: Marc Gaudet
On the evening of October 1st, the Urban group will having an outing to Mackenzie King’s Estate in Gatineau Park. We’re going to shoot star trails and do some Light Painting.
The are several series of ruins scattered about the vast estate. Some of them are ideally suited to shoot star trails through the arches with your main camera. Other ruins nearby are more suited for light paining. Bring your main and back up cameras, as well as your point and shots, You’ll be amazed at what you can light up in 2 seconds with a 10 000 watt flash light.
Star trails:
These shots take from 2-45 minutes each, depending on the length of the trails you want. The estate is vast enough that I would like to designate some ruins for Star trails with no light pollution from our light painting.
Light Painting:
There are some ruins on the estate that are against the forest and cannot be used for star trails. So, let’s do some light painting. This is the time to bring out coloured flashlights, high powered flashlights, regular flashlights, LED’s, candles and other battery powered illuminated objects anything else you’ve collected over the years. We’ll light up the ruins and trees and have fun. I have a bag of lighting goodies that I’ll be bringing.
Things to consider and study before hand:
Batteries:
Bring as many batteries for your camera’s that you can. A 30 minute exposure plus 30 minutes NR is 60 minutes of work. That’s a lot of battery power. I’ve lost more than one image because the battery couldn’t last through the entire process 2 -3 times in a row in an evening when I thought I had enough juice left. From what I gather, you get no benefit from the Noise reduction processing time at all and have a very noisy image.
Put your back ups and old bodies to use that night.
If you have 2 bodies and 2 tripods, bring them both, bring 3 if you have 3. Bring your Point and Shoot digital cameras, you’ll be amazed at how much you can light up the forest with a 3 000 000 Candle Power flashlight can do in 2 seconds.
Long exposure noise reduction.
Look up in your manual where your, what Nikon calls Long Exposure Noise Reduction settings are on your cameras.
NR significantly reduces the noise of your photos but doubles the processing time. While the camera is doing the NR processing, you can move, or drive, to a new location, readjust the camera and be ready for the next activation. After my final activation of the night, more often than not, I am at home in bed before the camera is finished processing.
Distance:
You have to carry your gear for a minimum 150-200 M over rough and rocky terrain in the dark. Bring appropriate bags, flashlights, to be able to avoid multiple trips back to the car.
Clear Skies:
The main thing we require for star trails is stars. So, Marc Gaudet will be sending an email on October 1st, to confirm whether the event is taking place that evening or not. If not, we’ll try again on the Saturday, the delayed until Sunday if required till we get a clear evening.
Recommend:
- hiking boots, rough terrain in the dark
- camera batteries
- flashlights
A tuque may not be a bad idea, it could get chilly up in the park, check the weather forecast for Ottawa and subtract 10 Degrees.
Times and Locations:
We will be parking in the lower parking lot of the estate for the evening. The main parking lot gets locked at 9 PM. To stay longer, we have to be at the smaller parking lot that is on the same road that leads to the Champlain Belvedere. This is also closer to the ruins.
One group will be leaving the RA Parking lot at 6:30 PM to go by caravan up to the lower parking lot to the estate. I need somebody to be the lead from the RA Parking lot.
Or you can go directly at the lower Parking Lot as I will be doing and meeting in there at 7 PM.
Please register at the Event Sign up page of the website.
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