CMRT84

Light speed on the blacktop

5 minutes outside of the Queensland town of St George and the Australian night sky is putting on it's usual show of brilliance. It's about 9:30pm on t...
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5 minutes outside of the Queensland town of St George and the Australian night sky is putting on it's usual show of brilliance. It's about 9:30pm on this moonless night when suddenly a distant rumble starts to roll across the countryside filling every void.. Far off on the horizons edge a white glow appears, as the rumbling gets louder the light gets brighter.. The minutes seem to stretch as we wait for some visible sign as to what is consuming the night sky.. Suddenly a beam of light breaks along the highway exposing us in the dark, still more than a mile away this Road Train made short time on rolling past us to quickly disappear into the night again..

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NIKON D800E

settings

Aperture 28/10 ISO 1600 Shutter 30/1 Focal Length 140/10

upload_date

Oct, 2016

Views

3268

Likes

+662

Awards

Top Shot Award 22

Legendary Award

Winner in Long Exposure Motion Lines Photo Challenge

Contest Finalist in The Night Sky And The Stars Photo Contest

Featured

Contest Finalist in Fast Moving Photo Contest

Winner in Car Trails Photo Challenge

Peer Award

+345

Outstanding Creativity

+66

Superb Composition

+57

Top Choice

+49

Absolute Masterpiece

+42

Magnificent Capture

Superior Skill

All Star

Virtuoso

Genius

Emotions

Impressed

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Behind The Lens

Location

This was taken just outside of the small Queensland town of St George in Australia

Time

From memory I think it was around 9:30pm

Lighting

The lightning used in this photo was all natural, the light trails were the passing of a road train.. Without this the ground would of been completely dark.

Equipment

I used a tripod for this shot, using my Nikon D800e exposure time was 30 sec, f2.8 at ISO 1600 The lens used was a Samyang 14mm

Inspiration

I actually done a very similar photo at this exact spot a few years earlier. I was photographing the summer night sky and during one of the shots a car drove past creating a similar image. I wanted to recreate the shot that also included the Milky-way which is visible during Australia's winter months It was only luck that a road train drove past in the 30 minutes I was there

Editing

Not much just some exposure, brightness and temp adjustment using Adobe Lightroom

In my camera bag

Before I head out I always ensure I have empty memory cards, charged camera batteries and the right lenses to cover what I'm photographing. I also take a few essentials like micro fibre cloth, a few silica gel packs, waterproof bags etc.

Feedback

To capture a shot like this the first thing you will need is a dark location, someplace where the light pollution is very minimal, especially for photographing the Milky Way. Regarding the light trails, I waited until the very last moment before I released the shutter (half a second) before the truck went past the lens. This was to limit the amount of light cast out by the trucks headlights/spotlights that would have over exposed some areas of the photo. Another thing to keep in mind is you don't want to photograph oncoming vehicles where the light is shining straight into the lens, this can cause flares and over-exposure. Also check to see if your location and time lines up with the Milky Way before heading out!

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CMRT84

Light speed on the blacktop