my long plan East Malaysia wildlifes, macro etc trip to Bako/Kubah National Park locate at Kuching, Sarawak .
thanks Andy Paul, Maureen, Andy Teo, Michael Wong, Simon Rex, CM Chong, Nizam (thanks for the local arrangement) etc to make this fanstatic trip for me …
Bako National Park, from Kuching airport can take taxi, bus to Kampung Bako Jetty (about 30 minutes) and a boat ride (can arrange near jetty and the rate is fix ~RM90 return)..
within the National Park, you are near to a beach with beautiful Sunset direction (will share some pictures later) .. most of the track need bit walk, night walk is a must to see wild lifes, insect etc … but take extra note as saw many pit viper (saw ~4-5 Wagler’s pit viper for 3 days)… will slow update with pictures
****best prawn ever ..we bought alive prawn from the fisherman while we met them on ocean and immediate back to canteen to boil it …
fresh prawn boil with hot water immdieate from the fisherman …
update 2013 Jul 5
… last Flow … 1. Singh-Ray RGND 2 stops 2. Lee Filter ND .9 Pro glass
update 2012 Sept 30
… teluk Assam, Bako National Park … – Lee Filter GND .9h – Singh-Ray 105mm CPL
… Hello … Wagler’s pit viper from Bako National Park
(update 23 Sept 2012)
Beautiful View near Bako National Park Jetty (update 24 Sept 2012)
… Bako National Park Jetty … – Lee Filter GND .45s – Lee Filter Big Stopper
(update 2012 Sept 24)
Flying Lemur | Colugo
update 2012 Sept 25
… proboscis monkey … – 1dx – 400 F5.6… the blinking tree … (with fireflies)
I always telling friends of mine to have bigger aperture to get clearer Milky way shot … and it really give impact with more light fall onto the sensor … but what if we do not have big aperture len .. e.g. we own F4 or F3.5 lenses ?
theoritical , if we can increase the shutter time which allow more light abosrb on the sensor.. we should able to capture beautiful stars sky … but according to the rule 600
…
I had aiming a polarie star tracker but too bad, i had been turn down by the cost and size …
recently, I managed to test the
Vixen Polarie… a square box size small and weight <1kg … and not really difficult to operate …
i may not able to share how do use this .. but it is really simple and let me share the simple test result
both shoot at F4 , exp 151s +- , ISO 400
1. without start tracker – Vixen Polarie
2. witho start tracker – Vixen Polarie
with minimu setup time and minimu knowledge of Astronomy , I am able to create a image without “start trail” effect
**** rule 600 simply basic rule to avoid “star trail” effect while we have too long exposure on our effective focal length.. e.g.
16mm on FULL frame, we should have max exposure of 600/16=37.5s
16mm on canon APS-c , we should have max exposure of 600/16*1.6=23.4
so if we have anything more than the exposure time the the rotation of earth will create “star trai;” effect create blur effect on to our frame.
Night-scape we normally refer shooting in dark … or under bright moon light. But then the light source still very limit…. we can always make use of other light source to make our picture more dynamic
here are few samples , I try to make use of some other light sources …
1.
1. Camera LCD
2.
2. Highway and buildings …
3.
3. City & Camera LCD
4.
4. torch light
5.
5. city light on right
6.
6. moving torchlight
and e.g. of picture remove the additional external light source
same view as #6 but without the moving torchlight
As everyone say, photography is all about light ….. so observe carefully what other light you can make use in your frame to make better photo ……
it is not difficult to shoot stars as long as we have the luck and right setting, and let me share some of my experience… but it is fun and tiring for sure ……
as Earth is rotating itself, so all the stars are moving (except for the Poles star, North star, or call Polaris)… so while we shoot the sky for more than certain time the stars will become either lines or circle (depend which direction, how long you shoot usually >30s small line will be appear). to avoid this, extra telescope equipment (e.g.Losmandy G11 with Celestron C8), we can either shoot a star trail or max ~30-50s else the star will be look like a small lines instead of blinking stars….
e.g. of 727s single exposure
and sample of 30s
– I do not own one those equipment so I do not know in depth .. but basic is those equipment will auto trace the stars so we can have longer exposure (which really need it while in real dark environment and do not want to shoot super high ISO
so … I shoot as below
1. star trail
a. in real dark environment, make a rough estimation of exposure with setting below
i. biggest aperture as possible
ii. infinity focus
iii. manual focus
iv. mirror lock up
v. high ISO normally I use ~400-1600 depend the environment
vi. for the exposure depend on the light pollution … may need few try to get right exposure
vii. shoot 2 picture .. the sky one could be very long and make the foreground over expose. so shoot another exposure for foreground
– refer picture above expose 700s in single shutter
b. not so dark environment
i. biggest aperture as possible
ii. infinity focus
iii. manual focus
iv. mirror lock up
v. high ISO normally I use ~400-1600 depend the environment
vi. shoot 10-30s depend how bad is the light pollution
vii. set shooting mode to continuous shooting, and use remote to continue shooting for >20mintues (you should see some line or curve depend which direction you face)
viii. shoot 2 picture .. the sky one could be very long and make the foreground over expose. so shoot another exposure for foreground
viiii. use a software call startrail.exe (google it) or StarStax (MAC) and it can auto stack the all shots into single frame which combine the star as line/curve
or check out here
x. shoot north and south 😀 , if possible… if you prefer circle/curve compare to lines
xi. I use a software load into my android call skymap .. real coold application, you should have it , if you love night photography
so here is few sample for option b
~40minutes exposure
exposure of ~30minutes of F2.8 @ISO800
to capture Milky Way, it is almost same like a star but it is more sensitive to light pollution and rotation.. (mean star trail , and we try to avoid that for Milky way as it crease blur cloud object instead the beautiful milky way)
we may need to take note of rule 600 where
600 rule simply basic rule to avoid “star trail” effect while we have too long exposure on our effective focal length.. e.g.
16mm on FULL frame, we should have max exposure of 600/16=37.5s
16mm on canon APS-c , we should have max exposure of 600/16*1.6=23.4
so if we have anything more than the exposure time the the rotation of earth will create “star trail” effect create blur effect on to our frame.
with minimum light pollution .. the color of the milky will look so beautiful
.. Milky from Bake’lalan …
from Bali …
… Milky way from Bali …
e.g. of light pollution
… city light pollution …
and Milky way near city (Kuala Lumpur) .. not viewable by nake eye .. but make use of big aperture len .. it can be capture
