Tag Archives: memel

Under Heaven

Last week I ended up in Newcastle Country Lodge and went star-shooting in the evening. Loved it! As luck would have it, I’m back in the country tonight (18 May 2015) and have just finished some last minute work. I would say it’s time to go grab some dinner in my faithful Ford LDV and then look up to the stars with my Canon South Africa 6D and Canon EF 17–40mm lens

Under Heaven (2)

Canon 6D & 17-40L, 25 secs, F4, ISO changed from 3200 upwards to 6400. PS layers. Flashlight 20 m away on ground.

Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

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Verkykerskop

I threatened to go and shoot the stars last night and that’s just what I did. While driving I saw a tokoloshe run across the road. A few kilometres on I realised that it wasn’t a tokoloshe when I saw two porcupines scurrying to the side of the road lol ;).

Verkykerskop

Canon South Africa 6D, Canon EF 17–40mm lens, F4, 25 sec, ISO 6400

Harrismith, South Africa

Gateway to Heaven

It was very cold on the old Memel Road outside Newcastle Country Lodgelate last night. I was alone and having my first serious attempt at some star photography. Dinner at Nando’s down the road with a Magnum ice-cream to round it off had me on a sugar rush. I did 5 minutes reading on camera settings and thought let’s give it a bash.

The one tutorial said “you will not see the milky way with the naked eye so get an app for … USD”. I thought let’s go see what we see. Initially, I was a little worried and only saw a few stars. As the city lights faded and it got later I thought “Oh my fish!!”. I was trying to focus in the dark with a faulty weak flashlight (very important tool) but still got to see three shooting stars in less than a minute.

The Memel Road is not the safest road on earth. Motorists and large trucks go like bats out of hell. There was also a taxi / bus driver war on the go so I didn’t feel too safe. I also had to avoid over-protective shotgun Frik farmers who might have fired buckshot up my rear.

Ok that’s most my excuses out of the way.. lol. Here is the photo shot with myCanon South Africa 6D from Orms using a Canon EF 17–40mm lens lens all set on F4, ISO 1600 and 25 sec manual / tripod.

If you thought I was mad over seascape photos let’s see what I get up to in the next few months wink emoticon. It was one of those photo shoots where I felt the blessings raining down (happens every 20th sunrise or so).

Gateway to Heaven

PS: my 2nd place prize from Sigma South Africa for the wide-angle competition was delivered to my door yesterday – a Sigma lenses 10-20 Canon mount. Thank you to the gent who cheated his way into 1st place and then got disqualified; you pushed me from 3rd (no prize) into 2nd smile emoticon like emoticon. I see Sigma has a 12-24mm F4.5-5.6 DG HSM II lens that would fit nicely onto my 6D – I was thinking of asking if I could swap my prize for this lens with a cash difference pay-in smile emoticon.