4 minute read
Workshop review: Astro-photography
By Paul Whitham LPSNZ
The third workshop in the 2021 PSNZ workshop series saw a hardy group of photographers braving the dark and cold in search of a great Astro image. This was the third time that PSNZ had offered an Astro workshop and, like the previous two, it sold out very quickly.
The location for this year’s event was on the central plateau, based around Horopito, a locality known for Horopito Motors (better known as ‘Smash Palace’). The historical Horopito School was the meeting place for our training sessions. The Friday session covered the basics: how to take the best shots, using those all-important settings.
The workshop was initially planned to be led by Taranaki photographer Leith Robertson, who organised the first workshop in 2019. Unfortunately, Leith suffered a heart attack, just a fortnight out from the event. While he was keen to continue, his whānau vetoed the idea, so we enlisted the services of David Jensen to run the workshop. David has extensive experience in astrophotography and was trained by Mark Gee. He had previously run one of the Astro workshops at the 2019 National Convention and was currently teaching night photography at Wellington College.
Fortunately, James Gibson ASPNZ EFIAP and Leith had already found some potential locations for the night activities, so we were not starting completely blind. While there was a draft plan in place, mountain weather is unpredictable. We knew we would have to be flexible anyway. After dinner in Ohakune, everyone donned their thermals and we drove back around the mountain to the beginning of the Tongariro Crossing.
Because the day had given us a mixture of cloudy and clear skies, we were not optimistic that we would see many stars. When we reached the car park it started to rain; that had not been in the forecast at all! David told everyone that he had very good star intuition, so we set off along the track.
By Paul Whitham LPSNZ
Within five minutes, the sky cleared and we had our first practice at shooting the night sky. For most people, this first session was about learning to focus their lenses on infinity.
After 20 minutes, the clouds rolled in again, so we continued up to the hut for shots with foreground interest. Again, we were lucky as the cloud had lifted by the time we reached the hut. We had another 30 minutes of shooting before the cloud returned, at which point we called it a night.
We started the Saturday session with lunch, and then David showed how he processed images in Lightroom. Most people had brought their computers and they were able to follow along while processing their own images. David also showed the software he used to stack images. Rotorua member John Miles LRPS took us through the Photopills app used by many Astrophotographers.
The weather on Saturday was the same as the previous day, so we headed to National Park for dinner and then went to the Chateau. The original intention was to shoot the Milky Way, but David soon decided there was too much light and that people would struggle too much to shoot successfully.
Instead, we headed up the track to the Tauranga Falls, stopping when we reached the bridge. People spread out in all directions, waiting for the sky to clear. Unfortunately, we only managed to get a few shots before the cloud packed in and we decided to switch to plan B.
Plan B was to relocate to the area where David and I were staying and create our own stars using steel wool. Not everyone decided to come to this event but those who did were rewarded with some great shots, and when we got back to Horopito the sky was clear. On Sunday, we had an informal gathering to get some feedback on how the weekend had gone and to collect the glamorous “hi-viz” vests we had been wearing. Overall the feedback was very good, with people saying the workshop had delivered what they had hoped for.
By Paul Whitham LPSNZ
“It certainly was a great night for learning a challenging genre of photography. Thanks to PSNZ and our excellent teacher, David Jensen, we all made massive steps forward. With David’s help at our first stop, we worked out how to focus on a tiny pinprick of light in a dark sky. Having moved up to the hut, we tuned our “white light / red light / no light” etiquette while setting up and managed to select suitable shutter speeds and ISOs before the Milky Way appeared in all its glory. Away we snapped, stacking and panning. By the time the clouds rolled in, most of us were hopeful that we had a “money” shot in the can (perhaps just a few cents, as most of us were Astro novices). All credit to David and Paul. This was my first attempt at Astro-photography; perhaps I‘m getting hooked.”
John Miles LRPS
The Milky Way over the Mangetepopo hut by John Miles
Photos by Paul Whitham: “Mountain” (a 20 image panorama) and “Making our own stars”
