We've added Friday, July 25 to our Bodie workshop schedule to squeeze in one more great Milky Way night before the opportunity passes. Each time we visit Bodie we try to set up a few new compositions as well as perfect the classics. With only 3 hours or so of full darkness in the park before we leave at 1 am, time management is one of the biggest challenges, so we try to be efficient as we go from shot to shot. The Milky Way provides its own unique set of opportunities and challenges, since each month it moves two hours later in its annual cycle. It's highest in June and July (near the Summer solstice), but the days are longer so dark nighttime shooting before 1 am is shorter. The orientation of the Milky Way changes as well, and it moves in compass direction SE to SW. It shows up best on dark nights near the new moon date, so only one, maybe two weekends each month. Next week we'll be there twice, starting July 19 then again July 25, so we'll have similar conditions on the two nights.
The new July 25 workshop is already 1/3 full from people asking me to add a 2014 date… would anyone else care to join us? http://www.jeffsullivanphotography.com/blog/bodie-night-photography-workshops/
#nightphotography #photographyworkshop #Bodie #milkywayphotography +Bodie Photo Workshops
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Beautiful! The last time I saw the Milky Way, was at Big Bear California, in the 80's. I was hyperventilating because the air was thinner. But the view of the Milky Way really took my breath away! Sadly, I
did not have a camera. :(
wish i could be there to see it.in uk its too cloudy and the light pollution is chronic.
wish I could find a website telling ppl what minimum equipment you need to shoot a photo like this....
+William Hill It's best if you have a camera capable of shooting a 30 second exposure at f/2.8, ISO 6400, with a wide angle lens at 16mm focal length (35mm camera equivalent, so you have to adjust for a crop factor on crop sensor cameras).
Just about any full frame camera manufactured in the past 5 years works fine. Most crop sensor models manufactured in the past 2-3 years work fine, with more noise, but it's harder to find f/2.8 lenses for them (Tokina makes a 10-16mm f/2.8 which shoot like 15mm on a Nikon or 16mm on a Canon camera).
Some people cut the ISO down to 3200, but many ultra-wide lenses for crop sensor cameras max out at f/3.5, 2/3 stop slower than f/2.8, and you really don't want to lose nearly two full stops by cutting back on both ISO and f-stop.
I've had people show up at my workshops with a Nikon D7000 with Tamron f/2.8 lens, Canon T3 and Tokina 11-16mm F/2.8 lens, I use a Canon 70D with the Canon EF-S 10-22mm lens, my fatehr uses the Canon T5i and Tokina 11-16mm F/2.8 lens, there are far too many combinations to list.
"How to Capture Milky Way Images*
http://www.jeffsullivanphotography.com/blog/2011/05/25/producing-milky-way-images/