Flickr photo of the week: starry night
“I was recently at The Monument township of central Queensland conducting some work on the fire equipment of the camp and Phosphate Hill mine, and relished at the chance to get some good night shots,” Matthew says. “The clear skies and cool weather were a big change from the usual rainy and muggy weather of Townsville, where I am from, and gave a great opportunity to do some night photography. After doing some afternoon exploring around the goat tracks and fire breaks of The Monument, I found this shot half way up one of the hills out there. Later, at around 8.30 pm I returned with my gear and conducted some test shots to try and get the composition and lighting just right, then proceeded to experiment with some star trail photos and also some still shots like this one.
It is amazing to go to a place so far away from any large cities and where you can see so many stars. The light dome that you can see above the hill in the photo is the light coming from the Phosphate Hill mine site. This shot was taken with my D3000 while mounted on a tripod with an exposure of 30s, ISO 3200, F2.8, with a remote shutter release and noise reduction applied.
I have been taking photos as a time passer for a while now but bought my first DSLR just over a year ago, and have not looked back ever since. It has expanded from something I did when we went on holidays to a hobby that takes up most of my free time. I have no set future aspirations as a photographer to be much more than a hobbyist but if the opportunity arose I might pursue it as a career. For now I just enjoy capturing the natural beauty of things big and small and have heaps more to learn.”
This pic appeared in the Australian Geographic Flickr group. Share your own photography and it could be featured on Australian Geographic online!
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