Week One (2)

What Does the Fox Say?

This past weekend was...interesting. Thanks to some really great members of the Executive Branch like William Howard Taft and Donald Trump, students had the pleasure of a four-day weekend. On Saturday night I headed up to Evansburg State Park with my pops (big shout-out to him BTW, it's really cool he's willing to drive me to all these places). Along for the ride I took a 12-year-old Canon Rebel T1i, a tripod, flashlights, and many, many bags of skinny pop.

We drove through the park, which was a lot bigger than I expected, till we found a parking lot and a nice field. We then unpacked and made the hike to open skies. Now, I've never really had a fear of the dark, but this jawn was scary. Who knew that the shadow of a tripod looked so much like a bear? After a few minutes of stumbling around blindly we finally emerged from the dark and came under the light of the heavens. It was time to setup

Out there in the field I learned two things:

1) I was going to need a new camera. The light from the stars was adequate, but my camera was struggling to pick it up. I was pushing the boundaries of what a 12-year-old camera can do, but unfortunately that wasn't quite enough to pull off stunning celestial images.

Two Pictures of  Orion, 30s Exposure with Different ISO

Pleiades, Perseus, Andromeda; Taken with 30s Exposure

(See more images on "Photos" page)

This is not a bad start by any means, for these photos have not even made it through post-production yet. It just shows a point from which I can improve. The way to that is invest in a new camera. I did some research and found that the Canon 6D would be the best option. I went out with my mom to a camera store in KOP on Monday, and we made the purchase. Along with that we bought a 50mm wide angle lens and a 32 GB memory card. Hopefully, this new gear will boost the quality of my images.

2) The answer to the age old question: "what does the fox say?" As I was out there underneath the stars, snapping pictures and adjusting my tripod, I suddenly heard one of the strangest sounds ever to reach my ears. It sounded like sewage being ejected, almost like a high pitched bark. It turns out it wasn't actually human waste but everyone's favorite animal, a fox. This bark went on for a couple of minutes, and I was starting to get a little freaked out. The sound of a predator in pitch-black darkness does not do much to boost one's morale. I had taken all of the pictures I needed and we decided to head back to the car. That Sunday night was both a fairly good photo-shoot and a great enlightenment, as I now can answer the question, "what does the fox say?" Turns out it's just an underwhelming and really annoying yelp. Kinda disappointing...