My visit to Taranaki last month offered no new opportunities for creative photography, but I have just re-discovered this unusual image, taken with a telephoto in our back garden (then) in Westown, New Plymouth one early spring. A power cable  mars the lower portion (too hard to retouch!) but the main interest is the sense of depth in the clouds. The trees and the lower cloud are illuminated by street lights, but not the upper cloud. Two stars are visible. Although I took many further photos at different settings (some too slow for the cloud movement, others at similar shallow apertures) the formation quickly dissipated, along with my evening’s hopes.  So much of long exposure work is like the dilemma at the printers: do want it fast, good and cheap? Choose two only.

85mm lens; ISO 2000.  2.5 secs @ f2.

Posted by Barney Brewster

Tags: clouds, focus, long exposure, moonlight, moonlight photography, New Plymouth, Nikon D700, stars, street lighting;, Taranaki, telephoto, trees

Categories: Night photography