Comments on: Mailbox Peak Night Hike

By: Bobby Marko

Bobby Marko — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 19:26:30 +0000

Thanks Connie!

Chris, thanks for the kind words! This book helped me out a lot: Photography Night Sky: A Field Guide for Shooting After Dark

The Seattle Public Library has a few copies if you don’t want to buy it.

You need a really fast and wide lens for good night shots. People recommend at least 24mm with at least f2.4. But I’ve been pretty happy with my shots using the kit lens on my Olympus OMD-EM5. These shots were taken at 12mm with f3.5 (as wide as my lens goes) for 20 seconds. If you keep the shutter open too long the stars start to leave trails since they’re moving. The other thing is you need to use a high ISO. For these I shot at 3200 which is why there is so much noise visible when you view them large. This was only my second time trying night photography so next time I’m going to try and decrease the ISO a little and increase the shutter speed to see if I can get a cleaner image.

That book I linked to goes into way better details about everything so I highly recommend it.

The new trail opens on the 27th! http://www.wta.org/signpost/new-route-opens-on-mailbox-peak

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 19:05:40 +0000

Oh, also, is the new trail completed yet??

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 19:03:53 +0000

Amazing photos! Simply breathtaking. I’ve been trying to learn how to take better night sky photos but without luck. I can never get the stars to come out, even if I leave the shutter open for 30 seconds. Do you have any tips you can give me? Did you use a wide angle lens? How long was your shutter open? Any other settings I should set?

Thanks 🙂
Chris

By: Connie

Connie — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 05:41:10 +0000

I thought the City lights and the Full Moon ones are awesome shots. Amazingly beautiful!