Doing nothing much in particular on a Saturday evening, all of my usual light painting buddies were busy (a surprisingly common occurrence of late?!). Undeterred, I decided to venture out by myself to Magpie Mine in Derbyshire's Peak District.
I'm very comfortable being on my own in the dark in the middle of nowhere except when there is a fox loitering nearby. Those things give me the creeps when they scream!
As I arrived at dusk to shoot the mine in the dark, a dodgy looking character with a tripod and a camera was lurking near the mine. I'm not one to be intimidated by strangers in the night so carried on as normal. The dodgy looking character then apologised in a typically British fashion for being in my way. No problem I said and struck up a conversation about why we were both present in the middle of nowhere.
It turns out the chap in question was a private jet pilot, a profession considerably more interesting than mine. At first I thought he was kidding me on but considering the expensive camera gear he was carrying, this must have been true as only a highly paid private jet pilot could afford such equipment! I certainly can't afford such gear being a lowly interior designer!
It turns out the jet pilot was a novice night landscape photographer. So to pass the time while I waited for complete darkness, I agreed to help him with camera settings and gave advice on lighting and focussing in the dark.
This is a sample of what I got:
Magpie Mine under a moonlit sky
Disappointed by the amount of clouds in the sky, I decided to take advantage of the wispy clouds and make them part of my composition. Exposing for around 90 seconds was just enough to make the mine appear as if in daylight using the moon as a light source.
I added an RGB LED light set to a low power setting inside the mine knowing that over a 90 second exposure, the insides wouldn't over expose and burn out the walls.
Turning night in to day
As the daylight faded I used the moon as a light source for most of the evening.
I added another RGB LED light on camera left and exposed for 30 seconds to let the moon do it's thing.
This is also a photo posted via another Hive front end, LikeTu. I've added this one as an experiment to see how a single photo performs without much of a description or any other photos in a blog post. LikeTu is the closest thing you'll get to Instagram with a Hive rewards and curation system.
The Aborted Star Trail Shot
The clouds cleared and the sky was full of stars even if it was a moonlit night. I set a star trail sequence shooting 90 frames of 30 seconds each. I got about 40 frames in and noticed the clouds creeping in to shot. I abandoned the attempt but this is what I got, almost a complete cloud wash out!
The Mine
After abandoning the star trail shot I moved around to the other side. Perhaps I should have shot the trails pointing in the other direction!
This tree....
Every time I visit Magpie Mine, this tree amongst the rocks fascinates me. How on earth did this lone tree survive in harsh conditions surrounded by rocks? I've shot this a couple of times and I will eventually get a killer shot of the tree. In the meantime, this is practice!
Night in to day
This was a dark scene with only the faintest moonlight. I left the shutter open for two minutes to exposure the scene as if in daylight.
The foreground tunnel is an excavated flue carrying the smoke from the long since disappeared steam powered pumping engine. I tried lighting the flue with a gelled flashgun but in the end the red I was using only distracted or disturbed the scene.
Portal
A friend of the jet pilot arrived and was keen to get a photo in this old gunpowder store.
I set up a light inside and let the moonlit sky expose for 20 seconds while the pair of volunteers held still.
In the end I preferred a black and white version which looked way better than a scene of muddy green!
Dodgy orb practice
I've been promising myself to get better at spinning light painted orbs. This was another failed attempt! I'll keep trying!
About me:
I usually specialise in shooting lightpainting images but occasionally dabble in urbex, landscape and artistic model photography. I'm always on the lookout for someone to collaborate with; the social side of photography is always good!
Social Media
https://www.facebook.com/fastchrisuk
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fastchris/