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| Chasing shadows! - Page 1 | |
| Elusive time critical photo planned | Rate Topic |
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| Posted: Sat Feb 11th, 2017 10:11 |
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1st Post |
Robert
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On Monday I am hoping to capture a special photograph at the southern end of Wastwater. Cam Crag is a prominence which is said to resemble a roman soldiers head, high above the Wasdale screes, at certain times of the year at sunset, it projects a striking shadow across the screes just before the Sun sets. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/29/long-wait-elusive-rock-wastwater-screes-lake-district The protruding rocks form a massive overhang which is not apparent from the opposite shore. Climbing the Cam Crag overhang is one of the holy grails of the rock climbing world, being one of the most difficult in the UK as I understand it. According to the Photographers Ephemeris, the shadow should be about right in mid February but if not I will get a good idea from Mondays images when I might get a better shot at it. Not only the timing but of course the weather has to be kind, with clear skies for an unobstructed sunset. http://app.photoephemeris.com/?ll=54.427597,-3.307310¢er=54.4303,-3.3012&dt=20170213071900%2B0000&z=14&spn=0.03,0.10 I plan to make the exposures from directly across the southern end of Wastwater, where the road makes a sharp turn away from the shore as can be seen in this close up photo of Cam Crag shows. http://www.alpinist.com/doc/ALP20/newswire-birkett-camcrag-e9
____________________ Robert. |
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| Posted: Sat Feb 11th, 2017 13:28 |
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2nd Post |
jk
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Photo opportunities predicted by Ephimeris are usually very accurate. I would cross your fingers and hope for clear skies and some nice clouds in the right place.
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
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| Posted: Sun Feb 12th, 2017 02:04 |
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3rd Post |
Robert
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Thanks JK, the weather forecast continues to be very good for Monday only, although gales are now forecast, so my heavy tripod has moved onto the list of gear and a strap to tie it down! My Bronica s2a fell victim to a gust of wind, tripod blown over, the flash synch was damaged somehow, all I got was a narrow strip exposed at the bottom of the negative. Once bitten twice shy.
____________________ Robert. |
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| Posted: Sun Feb 12th, 2017 03:27 |
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4th Post |
jk
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Looking forward to seeing your results. Hope the weather stays fine for you.
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
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| Posted: Tue Feb 14th, 2017 02:37 |
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5th Post |
Robert
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Well it didn't pan out as expected but we took over 900 pix between us. The wind was extreme. Wish I had taken my wind speed meter with me! The wind produced the most spectacular images. The shadows won't be ready until later in the year... Maybe a month? Still wading through the pix. Will post some later.
____________________ Robert. |
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| Posted: Tue Feb 14th, 2017 07:12 |
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6th Post |
Iain
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look forward to seeing them Robert.
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| Posted: Tue Feb 14th, 2017 17:17 |
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7th Post |
Robert
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Sorry for the delay, have been a little under the weather... Am very tired today. The shadows which were the main objective weren't right, needs to be later in the year to get the angles right/ This was my main setup for the screes, but the wind was ferocious, as strong as I can remember. It swept down the valley and whipped up fans of spray from the waves it generated. There were some rainbows from the spray but hard to capture. I had to tie the tripod down in the lee of the car, standing up was a challenge. One visitor got out of his car to see the spectacle and his hat and scarf are whisked from him in an instant, he finally caught up with them about 100 yards up the road in a ditch next to my car.  This is one of the gusts of wind which tore spray from the waves. D3, Nikkor24-120 f4, 24mm, 1/800 Sec @ f6.3, ISO800  Another similar pic, showing the island rock battered by the waves and covered by the spray.  We stayed until about 8:30pm capturing the stars, I have been busy cleaning the aeroplane trails off the images. Will post them once I have processed them. We watched some climbers torchlight movements down from Scafell Pike in the dark. It will be interesting to see how the show up in the finished star trail image.
____________________ Robert. |
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| Posted: Tue Feb 14th, 2017 18:36 |
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8th Post |
jk
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You did say it was windy. Those waves on the lake are pretty impressive!
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
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| Posted: Wed Feb 15th, 2017 16:28 |
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9th Post |
Robert
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Well the wind didn't drop but it did go dark (ish). D3, M Mode, 32 Sec exposure, intervalometer set to 34 seconds, ISO800; battered Nikkor 20mm f2.8@ f2.8. This batch was compiled from 34 exposures. The star trails were created using StarStaX: http://www.markus-enzweiler.de/StarStaX/StarStaX.html#download  Second image a bit darker with more contrast and saturation.  The second two images were compiled from 72 exposures, both processed in Ps and StarStaX but on the second image I removed the foreground light trails. These two compilations were processed/adjusted in Ps CC, the first two were processed in Lr CC. I feel the second two images are richer and cleaner, it was of course darker and hadn't suffered gross light pollution from passing traffic as the first two images did.   I have removed the foreground trails in the fourth image but I think I prefer image 3, because it has more 'going on'. There is a little bit of a story here, while we were sitting in the car and the camera was taking the first batch of star trail exposures, we noticed there was a light flashing high up on Scafell, it was following the path towards the decent route, then it stopped moving and started flashing about from the same place. I watched it for about a quarter of an hour and it still hadn't made any progress down the mountain, I grew a little concerned, a car came by and I stopped it hoping they were locals, it was getting quite late and dark. They turned out to be experienced walkers who had come down that route about an hour earlier. They shared our concern because the lights weren't making progress down and it was getting on for eight O'clock. Thay took over the light watching and I got back to star photography. The first three batches having been ruined by the lights from cars. So I decided to make a new batch once the walkers left. The lights on Scafell started to descend so they must have been having a brew! If you look at the first two images you can see the lamp trail high on Scafell which meanders down and stops abruptly. The third image continues the trail to the valley bottom and the trail of their car as they drove away. Finally, one from the first batch of 'The Plough'. It was spectacularly distinctive in the clear sky. 
____________________ Robert. |
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| Posted: Thu Feb 16th, 2017 04:26 |
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10th Post |
Robert
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Added to all this I think the photograph in the Guardian which started all this is of the wrong crag!!! Having studied many photographs of Cam Crag and checking my large scale OS maps, I am coming to the conclusion that the photographer who took that picture for the Guardian was looking and pointing his camera at the wrong crag. I believe the real Cam Crag is further up the Wasdale escarpment by about a Kilometre. Looking at photographs of Climbers on Cam Crag and lining up geographic features on the ground I am pretty sure it's as marked on the 1:25,000 OS Map, although to be honest, it's hard to recognise precisely. Seems moral of story is not to believe what you see on a single website. That said, Chris and I had a really exciting and eventful day in Wasdale and we intend to go back when we can to finish the quest. Hopefully without the gales.
____________________ Robert. |
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