First Trip to Frazier Park

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You are free to use these pictures in a non-commercial manner as long as you ask first and give proper attribution. I have 2K to 3K pixel scans on my hard drive if you want something larger.

This is my second set of pictures. These were taken on a roll of Ilford Delta 3200 film (Heh... changing to film 60 times faster in one roll!) that was purchased (like most of my other photo stuff) from FreeStyle Photo in Hollywood, CA. Delta 3200 actually reacts at more like ISO 1000-ish, but takes very well to being pushed or pulled to speeds from 400 all the way to 25000 (so I read). Well, I did these by just going with 3200!

The first thing you'll notice is that they are all very grainy. The price you pay for being able to take a picture on the road, at 80 MPH, in the middle of the night, with a 1/15sec shutter speed. I could have pushed it to 6400, but I needed this roll to come out (seeing as it was my ONLY chance to get this right in time for the final) so I stuck with something safer.

I've got two main tips for using Delta-3200. First, frame well because you can't arbitrarily zoom in without huge grain. Second, however long you think you should develop... develop longer. Of all the problems you'll have with extremely fast film, overexposure isn't likely to be one of them if you're actually using it for it's speed.

So, without further ado, I present my high school photo final. Our assignment was to tell a pictoral story. My story was of taking astrophotos at Frazier Park.

"Putting stuff in the car." - The garage door was closed and the only light was the side door. None the less, 1/60 second shutter. Note that, despite having been push-processed, there is still decent shadow detail.

"Driving..." - This one came out amazingly well considering the lighting conditions: I chose not to bring along any camera flash (seeing as using one at a premier dark-sky site would have got me lynched), so this is an available-light photo. Not bad for 1/15 or 1/8 second (even 3200 has it's limits :)). However, for every negative that came out as well as this one there were 6 to 8 more that were too thin or blurred to use.

"Still driving... Getting there!" - Erm, what idiot moved the camera before the shot was done? :) Heh... I actually think the still-readable sign with the trailing ghostlike streak it kinds cool. This was taken on the way up the mountain road. If you can't read it, it says "Parked vehicles must display a forest adventure pass!"

"This is what the whole trip was about." - Probably the best actual shot taken of the stars. I think this on was a 10 minute exposure. It was the one with the fewest tracking errors (My only working RA tracking system is a crummy mini-mount that has no polar alignment scope), but I fubared the printing of it... In my haste to get 8 photos printed in one hour, I misfocused it. Stupid me. Oh, well; You can still make out the outline of the Milky Way. Sadly, no Geminids in this frame.

"Curse the enemy." - This is probably the most beautiful shot them all. The exposure was a mere 1 minute 30 seconds. This is you, LA. All 20 million of you with your damn globe lights and bottom-lit billboards and [insert rant about light pollution and how our kids have never looked up and seen the milky way here].

"Returning home" - The second to last on the series I am going to turn in, and last that will be posted here. 1/60 second with available light. The grain may be a pain, but sometimes it's worth it.

Back -- Next to gallery 3.