Faerie Glen

Gallery: LandscapePosted December 6, 2009251 views6 comments

Nikon D2Xs
Tokina 12-24 f/4
ISO 100
f/5
roughly 30 minutes exposure
Some painting with light on foreground and the stone 'tower'.

Any thoughts on still remaining noise (it took me about a day's work to get this far already) are very welcome. I must say that I am a bit disappointed in how a camera like the D2Xs handles long exposure..

During the past years I have tried shooting star trails several times, but always failed miserably for some reason. Yesterday I just happened to be in a beautiful place for photography, when suddenly and completely unexpectedly the evening sky cleared and the stars popped out in their millions.

This is the Faerie Glen on the Scottish Isle of Skye: the only place, allegedly, on the island where fairies still live. The rest of the island they have deserted because too many humans came in and started destroying the land. Wise creatures, these fairies.. Once not only Skye, but the whole of the UK was virtually completely covered in forests. Now in Scotland only about 5% of that is still covered, and most of that consists of tree plantations where non-native trees grow. Comparing a tree plantation to a forest is a bit like comparing a lion cage in the zoo to the Savannah.

Sure, Scotland is still beautiful and relatively wild compared to the rest of Western Europe, but when you know the past, you see how maimed, stripped and damaged it is, and how life is merely hanging on by the fingernails.

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Roman Kurywczak on December 6, 2009 at 4:14 PM

Hi Arthur,
camera bodies handle the noise differnetly....you may want to select the sky and try adding black in selective color to darken it more..removing most of the noise. It shouldn't effect the trails. For me the painting is a bit bright but the scene is well composed. I also use Noise Ninja on any remaining noise but be careful with the settings as it does smooth certain things....play around with the settings to your desired liking.

Registered on November 20, 2009, 56 Posts, 748 Comments

Comment posted by Chris Chamberlain on December 6, 2009 at 5:31 PM

Neat image, sad story about the deforestation there. But that's man for ya. Yeah there's not too much you can do about noise with the D2X. It is just too old to have the benefit of all the newer technology. But I'm sure you knew that already. I have a D200, and I just won't even try this kind of stuff. It's still a cool shot.

Chris

Registered on March 13, 2007, 500 Posts, 8365 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on December 6, 2009 at 7:41 PM

Arthur,

This seems to be contained at this small web size, but I suspect you wouldn't be able to enlarge this very much. Can't help you any with resolving the issue unfortunately.

What is most interesting to me is the shadow line in the sky. You mention that the skies cleared and I'm trying to figure out if the light in the sky, and the shadow is from city lights, the moon, or what? Not a big deal, just curious.

Lon

Registered on November 24, 2006, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on December 6, 2009 at 8:27 PM

The story of Ireland has probably been repeated and is being repeated everywhere on the planet. Interesting how it's now nearly unimaginable for the place to be covered in trees. At some level this image feels like the last tree on the island conjuring a time warp to restore the land and the trees to the way it was . . . but finding that it's too late, and gets consumed in the effort. Dark and moody and sad.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments

Comment posted by Arthur Sevestre on December 7, 2009 at 8:21 PM

Thanks guys for your valuable comments. This makes me consider buying an old F5 to capture star trails on film instead. Saves a lot of waiting too during the shoot!

Lon, the dark band in the sky is a cloud that started coming in again just after the exposure started. It's a confusing part of the image. The light part of the sky is just dark sky without cloud really. I'm surprised it's so much brighter than the cloud. At any rate, it's pretty darn hard to get a completely cloud free night in Scotland, but I'll keep trying!

Whoa, Tony, I can follow your imagination there quite well. That's a heavy story! Might use the image for a short article on deforestation one day, and your story would go well with that!

Thanks again!

Registered on November 1, 2003, 275 Posts, 888 Comments

Comment posted by Jay Defigh on December 8, 2009 at 1:37 AM

I had not realized the UK has been deforested to such a degree. My home state, Oregon, in the US, has seen 90% of its forests logged. And though some has been replanted, the relatively newer forests bare little resemblance to the rich and dynamic ecosystems they replaced. If I could go back in time, one of the things on my list to see would be the NW prior to the hand of man. I imagine you may feel the same about the UK.

Regarding the photo, I think it's a good idea and I like the comp. If you redo this with an f5 or another dslr with less noise in long exposures, I hope you scan and post the picture here.

Registered on October 16, 2007, 0 Posts, 67 Comments