Blogs about photography workshops

Don’t wait for the right opportunity, Create it

April 14, 2020

To get you on your feet you need only 1 thing: DECISION. As a results your mind will create a target wrap up your gear and you find yourself on location.

Wherever you live the beauties and treasures are surrounding you. The only task is to point at the map and you are done. A little bit of research also beneficial as we explained in the other blogpost. This day wasn’t different either.
Tip: google “sightseeing spots…” and type your country, then go to pictures. You will definitely find something you would love to capture.

Now, the Covid-19 situation changed the game a little bit as we all need to be very conscious and “trapped” within our borders. Hungary offers so many opportunities despite being a smaller country. The recipe that always works: pick a subject from your national heritage, which was build decades and centuries ago. Add a drop of technology on top and the recipe is done.

This day we pointed on the map and targeted two iconic windmills and a military shooting range with abandoned tanks. After accomplishing a tour you always realise there would be much more in each location and you have to go back again. Sunrise, sunset, storm, rain…all weather conditions offer something different and unique.
If you wish to visit a place the first time, it’s always smart to make a research during daytime. Navigation at night is totally different, you are missing your most important sense and won’t feel comfortable. On top you will waste much more time and energy and it will be the take away from your shooting time. The day trip helped a lot, especially at the military field. It’s open for public, however highly recommended to contact the authorities if they have any action (the range is still active).
A nice storm seemed approaching, the light and clouds were quite appealing so we took a few shots.

As the result of the research finalised our plan for the night. The sky looked promising. We always use this weather forecast site, as it’s pretty accurate and reliable. On PC you will a “menu” on the left side, on mobile at the top. Pick clouds and precipitation and cross your fingers for the “brownish” colour. That means no clouds at all. On the bottom you have the timeline and can view few days forward. The closer to get to the actual time the more accurate it gets.

Sadly we need to fight more and more against light pollution. Eventually it’s a fight we lost already. We can only tackle and search for places where is acceptable enough to capture the Milky way. This time of the season it raises above the horizon around 01:15 am. That days we only had around 45 minutes to capture the star path as the moon raised at 02:10am already. As we are heading now to new moon it will get better every day.
Let’s see what was achievable at the windmill and to connect it with the Milky way.

The first image was taken with a new lens. Eventually it was new to me as I have never seen really Milky way shots with the Sony Zeiss Distagon 35mm f1.4. That was enough for me to get one and try it myself. Was not disappointing at all, actually it performed better than I expected. The corner sharpness is definitely better than the Sigma 35mm 1.4 ART lens. Focusing however was tricky as the sharpest infinity for the stars was at 32 meters (not sure if it was this copy only or applies for all). On the Sigma it’s really amazing how reliable is the manual focus mechanism.

The first image was taken with the Sony A7iii paired with the Sony Zeiss 35mm f1.4 lens. Consists of 24 images in 2 rows with approximately 40% overlap. The panorama was stitched in PTGui and edited in Capture and PhotoShop.
Exif: f1.4 / iso1600 / 10 sec / 35mm

The second image was taken with the Sony A7iii paired with the Sony 12-24 f4 lens. Consists of 130 images and was edited with Capture One and Photoshop.
Exif: f4 / iso2500 / 30 sec / 12mm (shot for the foreground f4 / iso1250 /200 sec / 12mm)

A fresh update after the second night visit at the place, just to represent some differences you can achieve with lenses and the time of capture:

The shots were taken a week after the first trip with the same Sony A7iii body and the 24mm f1.4 GM lens @f1.4 / iso1600 / 10 sec
The first was at 01:20am and the second at 02.40am. Clearly visible how the Milky way raised and shaped the beautiful arch.

Thanks for joining us, stay tuned for the next adventure.

“A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.” – Francis Bacon