Out Into the Darkness

Saturday afternoon we went out to the coast and hung out around the Mendocino Headlands watching the sun go down. We had a fantastic tail gate dinner of clam chowder, olives and Camenbert Cheese. We counted so many Gray Whale spouts that I lost count. Right now they are migrating north to Alaska. Such a pretty cool sight to see. The sunrise ended pretty quickly in a fog bank so we headed up the coast to where we were staying at Pudding Creek north of Fort Bragg. We walked out onto the Pudding Creek Trestle in the fading light and created one image of the rocks off shore. We went back to our room watched an old western movie with Jimmy Stuart and drifted off to sleep. Around midnight the dog decided it would be a great time to go to the bathroom. I plodded out into the darkness and worked on an image of the rocks and the beach. The dog really put me into a mood when he wanted to go out at four a.m. I grabbed my camera again and this time made an image of the water shining with the silvery light of the moon. It was a great trip except for my lack of sleep. Next time the dog is staying home! God's love and blessings to all, chris All images created with a Canon 7D and a Canon 28-105 lens. The first image was created by bracing the camera against the trestle railing for a long exposure. The other two were taken on a Manfrotto 190 PROXB Tripod with a Manfrotto 3055 ballhead. Camera settings used AV mode,ISO 400,F 4.5 at 30 seconds.

Polaris The North Star

Polaris is a pretty cool star. It is located in the constellation of Ursa Minor, the Little Bear. The easiest way to find Polaris is to find the Big Dipper. The two end stars that make up the end of the pot of the dipper (not the handle) point downward almost directly at the North Star. That is why they are sometimes called the pointer stars. One of the most amazing things about Polaris is the fact that it sits directly above the North Pole of the earth. If you were to stab a giant pin through the axis of the earth from the south pole to the north pole it would point directly at Polaris. Because of this if you take a long exposure of the sky at night with your camera the star trails formed will create circles around Polaris! This image was made with an exposure of close to an hour and a half.It's pretty easy to find Polaris at the center of the circles just barely above the treeline. Enjoy and God bless, chris