I started serious photography when I was stationed in Greece around 1984 (Air Force). I was bored on this remote site and one day saw cameras at the BX in Athens. On a lark I bought a Canon T-70 and a couple lenses. Then I got some “learn photography” books.

That camera helped me keep what was left of my sanity.

When I saw the title, I thought this was gong to be about 1860s bustiers!

If memory serves, for the first shot ISO800, F4 30 sec exposures. For the second attempt, ISO 400, F4 and 20 second exposures (at 24mm). (For the first shot there was no moon out, but for the second attempt there was a pretty good half moon.

No, I don't sorry. I looked at Landscape when I was out there but was concerned I wouldn't get Polaris in the shot or it would be very high up on the image

A couple weeks ago, I posted a picture of a local Mission church with star trails. In this, my first attempt, I accidentally got the stars out of focus but still liked the results after stacking the images in StarStax. This time, I made double sure the stars were in better focus, and also let the camera run for longer (8 hours). Unfortunately this time I didn't have the priest out there with me to open the doors and turn on the lights.

Here is my first attempt: https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-792170-1.html

And attached in my most recent shoot.

(Download)

My opinion, the deer was right there and they just didn't see it because it was dark out. The red flash assist light was just bright enough to illuminated it in the picture.

It looks like the other deer was there and was illuminated, probably by a red focus assist light.

Get a camera with good rear screen

The church was shot separately during blue hour. The stars were shot separately then the two were blended. I had the stars in perfect focus initially but the focus ring must have gotten bumped.

Sure. I just has the stars slightly out of focus

UPDATE: Well, I decided to go ahead and buy a 512GB V60 Lexar card because B&H had a very good sale going on. Once I got the card, I did a little test and compared it to my SanDisk 128GB V90 card. In normal shooting situations there is virtually no difference. The fact that there are some of the higher end video modes I can't shoot on this card was never a concern since I shoot all my video on a SanDisk CFExpress card. My concern was with shooting stills.

My test involved timing how long it would take to hit the buffer on my R5 and how many shots I would get before that. Then, I timed how long it took to clear the buffer once it was full. Please not that I only went through the test a couple of times so this is by no means scientific.

The V60 card did hit the buffer a little sooner, but was within half a second of the V90. When the buffer was hit, the V90 card yielded around 73 images while the V60 only gave me 67. Yes a difference, but not one that would matter to me very often, if ever. I don't typically hold down the shutter for 7 seconds but rather tend to shoot it short bursts. The other test was to see how long it took each card to clear the buffer once it was full. The difference here was a little more noticeable. The V60 would clear the buffer in around 14 seconds, while the V90 was 5 seconds faster at 9 seconds. I could see where this could be an issue for people who really like to "spray and pray" but for me, this difference will likely never be an issue, of at least very rarely. I've got this card in the camera now and will assess over time whether there is any need (for my use cases) to spend significantly more $$ for V90 cards. (I probably will still get some if I see a good deal).

Thanks!

Nice!

Wow! Nice!

OK, I messed up - but I think the result was still kinda cool. With the help of Father Adrian Sisnaros, I took this image of the San Francisco de Asis church in Golden, NM a couple nights ago. Father Sisnaros not only gave me permission to stay out there in this gated church/ cemetery, but he was nice enough to come out during the early stages of my shoot and help me (and he had his camera and got some cool Milky Way shots too). He turned off a distracting outside light and open the doors turning on some low level interior lights which really added to the picture. (The light you see in the bell tower is Father S in the back shining a flashlight up there).

I then spent the night there (ever spend the night alone in the dark in a cemetery?) to get some star trail images behind the church (actually it's around 1000 separate exposures all blended together to form the trails). I was really bummed when I got home and discovered all the star images were badly out of focus. Somehow, after I set sharp focus on the stars, the focus ring must have gotten bumped because the stars in all the images were out of focus. Nevertheless, I blended the star images to give this result of "fat" star trails. I'm going to go out and try a re-do to get properly focused stars, but I thought the end result of my mistake was still kinda cool.

(Download)