testmeat photoblog

i find taking star photos a boring, frustrating and rewarding process. the boredom comes from sitting and waiting up to 30 minutes for the shutter to open and close. the rewards arrive as soon as the shutter does close and the camera reveals the starry result. the frustration mainly centres around getting the shutter open in the first place. i have particular difficulty with this as my celestial lens of choice - 10-20mm wide angle - doesn't switch to manual focus with my nikon d60. this means i have to use the auto focus, which becomes exponentially weaker the lower the light. the cruel irony being the darker the scene, the better the star shot yet the harder it is to focus. my solution for this is to stand in front of the camera and shine a torch into the sensor. for some reason this moon-less shot was particularly trying and it took almost 5 minutes for the sensor to acknowledge the light. a few days later i was discussing this with a nova scotian in havana and he presented an altogether superior solution. it turns out there's a menu setting on my d60 where i can force manual focus, no matter what lens is attached. it was an illuminating discovery which means no longer will i have to perform a torchlit dance each time i want to take a long exposure. god bless canadians!

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