On the 30th of April 2011, I went back to my hometown. In the same weekend, I saw one of my favorite photographer host an outing on that day. Without asking more details, straight away I register my name to that outing.
We gather up at 11pm and we had a short briefing. Liewwk:"We will gather up until 1230am, then we will start our journey. The destination is about 2 hours drive from here. We will reach there around 3am, then we will have a break at the mamak. Then we will go in for shooing at 4am until sunrise."
I was like..... WTF!....I didn't know that it will spend the whole night. What was in my mind is, gather at 11pm, then shot, then go home at 3am. It was a bit shock at the beginning, but awhile later, I felt so excited. It is been a long time that I didn't really go for such a huge outing.
It is a long way drive from PJ. I meet new friends, and we had fun chatting in the car. As expected, we reach our destination at 3am. We had a rest/check point at the mamak near by before we drive into the shooting area, Surprisingly, there are more people joining us! They are from the north side of Malaysia. So, they meet us at the mamak instead of PJ. Finally, the clock stuck at 4am, 9 cars driving to the same destination. Everyone have the same hobby and we are all here to do the same thing. I felt so excited, and I don't feel tired at all, although is already 4am.
Once we stop by, without wasting anytime, everyone set up their gears and start shooting. There are two lakes around us, with no lights at all. Looking up into the sky, it is just so beautiful. We can see the sky full of stars. The most incredible experience was, I can see the milky way with my bare eyes!
We had a great shooting time for that few hours. We are shooting stars, milyky way, stars trail. Later on, when the sun rises, we manage to have a great view of sunrise. It is not ideal, due to the clouds around. There are too much clouds that night, but the view is still very beautiful and stunning.
Here are some shots of mine.
Here is my milky way shot. Too bad, it is out of focus, aperture is not wide enough. And a lot of noise. Tips for milky way, widest aperture + high ISO + wide angle.
Some shots of the stars. Unable to shot the star trail. Don't have the right equipment on hand. OMG... going to buy another toy. The shutter release cable! Shooting at widest aperture, widest angle. Tripod mount and remote release. Shutter speed around 1 minute.
The night shots are not satisfying, but is a great experience to me. I've gain more experience in shooting stars, milky way and star trails. No doubt, I'm going to do it again in the future.
This is the only HDR I took for the day. Hmm.... kinda flat image for me...
Here comes something that I'm more familiar with. Sunrise!!!!
Purple white balance! Manually set in camera. I just love the reflection on the water. Although we can't see the sun coming out, but the colour and reflection is just stunning.
Warm White balance! A 55mm x 1.5 shot for landscape. Ngek ngek ngek. So, Don't ever think of wide angle is the only choice for landscaping. I've seen people using 70-200mm f28 for landscaping.
Seriously, this is a very nice outing. Too bad, I'm rushing back to PJ. I left earlier with another 2 guy right after the sunrise. Else I will have more time to shot with a more relax mode. And have more time to chat with new friends. Looking forward for the next outing by Liewwk. His photos are just too good. Totally inspiring. So much more to learn........
Lu Ting Jieh
