starry night | Andrew Harvard Photography

The moon was out in full force last night so the only option was to wake-up at 03:30 this morning (straight after moon-set) at Drakensberg Sun and head out into Champagne Valley, Drakensberg to shoot some stars.

I’m sure I’ll rave about this for weeks to come: up until first light I saw three deer, an owl, a wild rabbit and shooting stars – absolutely amazing!

The photo below was taken with my old (baby) Canon South Africa 550D using my recently won Sigma South Africa 10-20 lens (F4, ISO 1600, 50 sec). I also used a small LED Lenser USA in the pitch dark.

The 550D does not “see” as well as the big 6D so I had some issues with focussing and my horizontal line (the spare tripod with NIL angle adjustment didn’t help).

5 Star Durban I Love Durban Led Lenser South Africa LED LENSER Drakensberg Sun Champagne Sports Resort Cathkin Cottage, Drakensberg Champagne Castle Hotel & Resort

— at Drakensberg Sun

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).

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.