One of my favorite and fun photos to create this year was a self portrait in a hammock under a starry sky. While kayak camping on Knight Island in the north of Lake Champlain, the clouds dispersed and gave way to a crystal clear night sky. I had set up my hammock on a tree that was leaning over the beach earlier in the day. Using a radio shutter release and my headlamp for light, I carefully painted myself, the tree, and my kayak. It took a few tries to hide the light source and get the exposure right. The most challenging part with using the headlamp is that it’s so much brighter relative to the night sky. Keeping myself generally backlit and letting my face be lit by bouncing the light off the tree kept the levels low. To keep the stars from streaking, I used a shutter speed faster than 30sec. The Nikon D810 is just amazing at star photography and night photography. Light painting is a fun way to add some depth and detail to night photos. The ability to use slow shutter speeds and light paint trees, rocks, people, under a star filled sky can create very dramatic photos.
Details are Nikon D810, 17-35mm @2.8, 15 sec, ISO-2500, Manfrotto tripod.
Watching the stars in northern Vermont on the edge of Lake Champlain
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