Greetings fellow Steemers,
Here are a few shots I took while experimenting with long exposures. I took them in a remote part of Eastern Serbia early last fall. I took these shots on my Nikon D3200 with the kit lens set at 18mm for maximum star capture. I really wanted to show just how many stars were visible in this amazing stretch of sky.
This first image captures a strip of sky cutting through the canopy of a plum tree and a walnut tree. I shot it at 1600 iso, which is a bit on the high side, but the distortion isn't too bad and the green on the leaves really popped at this setting. I also set the shutter to 20 seconds for maximum starry goodness, which gave the stars time to shift a little and created some minor trails, but that's no big deal.
This second shot has just the walnut tree and a large amount of stars off to the side. This time, I achieved slightly less distortion in the stars while maintaining good color and star density. That streak at the bottom is a plane. There is a huge amount of air traffic in the area. I would see three to five aircraft cutting across the sky at any giving time.
I love these two shots. I spent about a week out in the hills of Serbia experimenting with night sky shots and these two images capture the tranquility and awe-inspiring quality of the night sky out in this remote sector for the world.
It's just beautiful and I loved every second of this experience.