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Behind The Lens
Location
This shot was taken at Clearwater Beach, Florida right before sunrise. The sun actually started rising a bit in the last few seconds of my last exposure.Time
I shot this the early morning of Sept. 17th. The peak of the Orionids Meteor shower was that night and I wanted to try some long exposure shots. I was trying the pier but it just wasn't working out so I moved down a little and shot the Life guard tower instead.Lighting
There was no moon that night so I decided to go with a super long exposure and shot it as HDR. I had never tried either before that night.Equipment
I used my Nikon D7000 with a 18-105 kit lens set on a Manfrotto tripod. I also used the Yongnuo rf-603n triggers as a remote.Inspiration
I heard about the meteor shower the day before and decided I was going to try it out. I got to the beach around four in the morning and ended up in front of the Life Guard tower about 30 mins before the sun came up. I took 3 shots at f/13, iso 100. My normal exposure was at 4 Minutes, underexposed at 2 minutes, and overexposed at 8 minutes. The sun actually started peaking the last 30 seconds of the 8 minute exposure and for some reason the beach clean up guy was out driving a gator around with the lights on. I was just praying that he didn't shine the lights onto the life guard tower.Editing
I combined all three shots with Photomatix Pro and just did minor tweaks to exposure and color in Lightroom.In my camera bag
I use a Nikon D700 with an 18-105 and a 70-300 kit lens. I have a set of four Yongnuo rf-603n triggers I use for remotes and for using my Nikon sb700 speed lights off camera for portraits. All packed in a Lowepro flip side 400 backpack.Feedback
Obviously don't try any long exposure with out a good sturdy tripod. Especially any exposures of this time frame. You can get great shots basically from any lens or camera but if you do not have a good sturdy tripod your shots will never come out good. I've actually since upgraded to a Manfrotto 055 series tripod with their new 3way pan/tilt head and love it!