Astrophotography Archives - Photo Tips, Creative Photography + Travel Guides - The Wandering Lens

Setting the Scene: Creating Star Trails with Live Composite

Lisa Michele Burns — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 11:12:36 +0000

How to Take Star Trails The magic that exists once you learn how to capture astrophotography and star trails is immeasurable. Astrophotography is about capturing long exposures that bring out the available light and showcase stars and world above. Star trails go one step further, blending long exposures together to actually capture the movement of the stars in relation to the earth’s rotation. Photographing astrophotography is something that took me a while to get the hang of because it’s so very different from photography during the hours of sunlight. It also requires a lot of patience, research and technical skill in order to capture clear and striking images of the night sky. For this month’s Setting the Scene I’m going to share how to capture star trails using the Live Composite mode found on Olympus OM-D cameras. It’s one of, if not the best feature I’ve discovered since shooting with my OM-D E-M1 Mark II and has changed the way I photograph at night. Long exposures are one thing, but blending these exposures together to form an image that incorporates a series of light trails and movement is SO addictive. Let’s get started… Planning the Shoot One thing that will...

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How To Photograph The Northern Lights

Lisa Michele Burns — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 20:15:33 +0000

Learn how to Photograph the Northern Lights Photo Tips for Photographing Aurora + Astro When the green waves of the Northern Lights dance in the sky or the stars twinkle on a clear night, you’ll want to know how to photograph this incredible natural phenomenon. Taking a photo with the wrong settings will result in a black image that doesn’t show any of the magic that’s visible through a long exposure. While everything below might sound technical at first glance, fear not. Once you’ve got the right settings for your camera and the focus is set properly then all you’ll have to do is stare in wonder at the sky and click the shutter. To photograph the northern lights or even just stars in the sky, you’ll need to prepare a few things in advance to ensure you’ve got the best equipment and conditions. The techniques mentioned in this post can be used for photographing stars, the night sky, the Aurora Australis (Southern Lights), basically any dark sky astrophotography. Equipment for Night Photography A Tripod Camera with manual setting ability Wide-angle lens Extra Batteries These are explained in more depth below… Tripod – having a sturdy tripod is essential when photographing the...

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Shooting stars and Aurora Australis in Wanaka, New Zealand

Lisa Michele Burns — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 04:00:04 +0000

After a day exploring Wanaka with a helicopter ride to Roy’s Peak, panoramic views over the majestic Aspiring National Park and a sunset gathering with some of the world’s best photographers at the infamous ‘That Wanaka Tree’, we heard whispers the Aurora Australis was on its way. Seriously!? Could Wanaka get any more amazing? Apparently so. The Aurora Australis (aka Southern Lights) are best viewed when facing south so Wanaka’s Eely Point Recreational Reserve was our pick for the evening’s vantage point. Aurora’s occur when highly charged particles enter the atmosphere resulting in a natural light show across the sky typically near the North or South Poles. I’ll confess straight up, despite being a professional photographer I had never perfected astrophotography, heck I hadn’t even attempted to do so as I love the sunshine and water so much that I preferred to let the experts capture the stars. This all changed once astro genius’ Brent Purcell and Shaun Jeffers showed me the settings before the Aurora Australis began. Down by Lake Wanaka with no lights and only our phones to shine on the camera, the settings were put in place and I tested my infinity focus to be sure it...

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