 Axedale Catholic Church Nikon D610 20 seconds F2.8 iso 2000 It seems obvious I suppose but whenever we look up at the night sky all we initially see are two colours .... black and blue. Most people don't even bother to look up at all and especially for those who live in large cities and populated areas, light pollution all but ruins those opportunities. Most of us don't spend enough time letting our eyes adjust to the dark conditions to realize what colour the night sky actually is. I say this a little tongue in cheek actually because I'm very well aware that the human eye cannot possibly see as much detail as a long exposure photograph can deliver.
The image at the top of this page was taken on the same night and being closer into town didn't really have the same colour balance due to street lighting etc .... so the solution to creating some magic, what every photographer turns to when all else fails ... make the image black and white. Actually one of my projects this year will be to create a series of black and white Nightscape images. This isn't my normal practice as I love to explore the colour spectrum on offer in the night sky, but I see it as a challenge to see what de-saturated art can be produced under the cover of darkness. My opinion is that any form of photography is art and the expression of that art needs to originate in the imagination of the artist. There's that word again ... imagination. Funny how that concept keeps coming back into this photography conversation. Imagine away I say and see what we can create ... when we begin to do that nothing is beyond us.
 Home Alone Nikon D610 14mm F2.8 iso 1600
Another beautiful example of the lovely blue tones that contrast beautifully with the browns and yellows of the old brickwork of the building and the long grass in the foreground. I'm sure you're wondering how the camera is able to see any colour at all in the dark ... well that's the subject of another post later on. For the moment I think I'll leave it there. Just remember one thing ... next time you look up into the night sky, linger that little bit longer and you'll be sure to see at least a little bit of black and blue.
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 This summer I took some time to revisit an old pastime of mine .. Star Trails. I guess this was largely influenced by my recent "Nightscape Journey" DVD which was produced as part of The Land and Sky Art of the Night Exhibition. During production of the DVD I spent time going through some really old archives from when I first started nightscape photography, and of course just like most people, my first foray into nightscapes were star trails. My first star trails were taken with film cameras and were done the old fashioned way ... open the shutter for the whole duration of the shot ... sometimes up to 3 hours or more. The image below was possibly my very first star trail shot. It's the planet Jupiter setting in the western sky. As you can see there are not too many other stars showing. This shot was taken on 620 black & white film on a box brownie.  I guess you could say it's a fair contrast to the image at the top of the page which was taken with a modern full frame DSLR camera. I wouldn't even dream of trying an exposure that long now. My method of capturing star trails now entails stacking a series of shorter exposures and blending each one into a single image. This is a reasonably straight forward exercise given the abundance of software and computer power available to us today. But I can't help but think that because things are easier now, we can so quickly forget the basics of capturing a beautiful image. Composition and content are still the most important aspects of any image, and that includes those taken at night. In fact for any of you who may have tried capturing nightscape images, composition becomes a very big challenge. It's just so hard to see anything in the dark. But just as with any image taken during the day, we need to be mindful of including foreground objects as focal points in our picture. The stars become a glorious backdrop for our photographic canvas, and as I have often noticed, it doesn't really matter what we use in the foreground ... it seems to complete the image. I suppose it's a bit like putting a canvas into a frame .. it makes sense. When capturing star trails I like to point my camera towards the southern sky (I live in Australia) because I love to see the graceful circular patterns generated by the rotation of the earth as time passes by. I love the night sky and it's always my intention when capturing images to reveal an aspect that somehow showcases just how majestic it actually is. Here are a couple more of my 2015 Star Trails .... I hope you are enjoying the view on these lovely summer nights.  Old Shed Trails: 38 x 1 minute exposures Nikon D610 14mm f2.8 iso 800  Spinning Church: 18 x 2 minute exposures Nikon D610 14mm f2.8 iso 400
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