I shoot pictures during the day and Richard shoots pictures at night. You see, my husband, an amateur astronomer images the night sky. His observatory is in the Sierra Mountains, and he finds galaxies and nebulas via a camera attached to his telescope. Viewing is done through his computer.
My advantage is that I can shoot on cloudy, overcast and pretty much any kind of weather. The result may not be pretty, but I can take my camera out more than he can use his scope.
So when we decided to take a day and run away, I did take my camera. We ran, excuse me–drove, to the Point Reyes National Seashore. Once there, he wanted to see the Lighthouse. It was well worth the long drive. I had been there, and I wanted him to have the experience too.
When we got there, I got out my camera and set one up for him. Richard wanted to whale watch, but we didn’t bring binoculars. I hoped that my 55 – 300 mm lens on my D3100 would give him enough reach. Whale watching was a bust, but he did get some great photos that you’ll see in this post.
The Lighthouse was also a bust. It was closed. If it was open, I don’t think we would have made it down to it and back up. There’s 300 steps which they say is equivalent to climbing 30 stories of a building. I’ll put a picture of the Lighthouse stairs in the second part of this post.
Meanwhile, winter is definitely a tough time for astronomers. For photographers, if we can put up with a bit of fog, rain and clouds, we’re good to go. And, we take pictures at night also!
Slow Shutter Speed 