Fungi Foray

Last weekend I joined other CCC members for a trip to Santon Downham and Brandon Country Park to take pictures of fungi and autumn colour.  After a rather damp start the day slowly picked up with the sun briefly coming out in the afternoon.  Despite the late sun, I didn't do too well on Autumn colour shots, but we were able to find a good selection of fungi.

Star Trails On The Beach

One last image from Cornwall.  The cottages we were renting were just a 100 metres or so from the beach and  maybe 1km from Sennen itself.  With no other town in sight, the beach was free of light pollution, making it a perfect location to try a star trail image. 

The beach was a little short on foreground interest, but we managed to find a few low lying rocks.  We then sighted up on the north star to get a full circle.  The final image is a composite of 67 separate 30-second exposures at f3.5 and ISO800, all blended using the software available here.  For the last 10 seconds of the last shot I painted the rocks with a hand held LED torch.

For a first attempt at this technique I am pleased with the final result.  In the high resolution original it is possible to make out the different colours of different stars.  I am  really looking forward to my next chance to try this again, hopefully in a location with a stronger foreground.