We spent some at the beach a few weeks back and made a go of it in both North Carolina and South Carolina. We started at Holden Beach NC and met our eldest daughter and her family. We spent 3 days with her and the in-laws whom we dearly love. The night we got there my daughter mentioned that took the kids to the beach at night to look for "ghost" crabs. These crabs are the same color as the sand and you need a flashlight to find them. My daughter also said the night before she could see the Milky Way we made a 10PM trip the next day and there it was in all it's glory. I tried getting that shot at 1 AM several years earlier in Arches National Park which is a very dark place. I was unprepared equipment wise and planning wise as well, but not this time. I had a full frame Canon 5D4 and a 16-35 f2.8, a good tripod and remote release.
We put a blanket on the sand, set up and made about 40 shots. I stated at ISO 1600 and went to 3200 and finally at ISO 5000. All the exposures were done at 15 seconds f2.8. I was amazed at how well we could see the Milky Way from a beach with two rows of beach houses right behind us.
Images were developed in LR and PS with mnoise reduction in Topaz DeNoise AI. That software is amazing and the raw files do not look the finished work. Next time will try 10 second shots at f2.8 to get the stars are bit rounder. The meteor shower was going on and you can one in the upper left of the central core shot and there is a steak in the lower right. I am thinking that one may be a satellite. Too small for the space station and no reduction in brightness as it travelled in the sky.
Central Core of the galaxy at 26 mm
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Added the beach for some foreground
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Back at sunrise and the AM golden hour
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Great images...I love the light in the beach scene.
Stunning series! I particularly like your composition in #3, choosing to not shoot directly down the middle of the boardwalk, but showing one side's slats instead. With that light it's a tremendous leading line.
Wow. Never thought to take milky way at Holden Beach with Myrtle Beach so near by. I'll be down that way in a couple weeks and weather permitting will have to give it a try. Thanks for the inspiration.
Nice photos; the last one is my favorite.
Nikocarol wrote:
Great images...I love the light in the beach scene.
Thanks for viewing and commenting.
Linda From Maine wrote:
Stunning series! I particularly like your composition in #3, choosing to not shoot directly down the middle of the boardwalk, but showing one side's slats instead. With that light it's a tremendous leading line.
Thanks for the kind comments. I always enjoy your incitful reviews which give everyone a chance to learn. Not only from their work, but from others as well.
Thanks for taking the time to view my work and commenting.
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