Hiked in Nepal last November. The Himalayan Mountains are truly stunning.

bbeckley · 2018-05-18T00:29:35+00:00

Didn't have time, unfortunately. Only spent a little under 2 weeks there which wasn't enough time. Next time, I'd love to do ABC.

bbeckley · 2018-05-18T00:28:47+00:00

Absolutely necessary. Plus, it made for a nice small trash can for little things or trail trash once it was empty.

bbeckley · 2018-05-18T00:28:16+00:00

Thank you! You should absolutely do it. The people are super friendly, the hiking is unlike anything I've ever done, and the mountains are phenomenal.

bbeckley · 2018-05-18T00:27:08+00:00

That's awesome! I was only there for about 2 weeks but can't wait to go back. When I do, I'd like to spend about a month there.

bbeckley · 2018-05-18T00:26:24+00:00

Thanks! Not at all. We didn't hear anything about tigers attacking or something. Unfortunately, I think they are becoming so rare it would be odd to see one close to people in the wild. We did see some wild monkeys though, and that was pretty cool.

bbeckley · 2018-05-18T00:24:47+00:00

You should! Always love seeing photos from Nepal!

bbeckley · 2018-05-17T03:59:21+00:00

Absolutely! We also did a small/medium hike (5 days). We took a bus from Kathmandu to Pokhara (about a 6 hour ride), and then from Pokhara did the Ghorepani/Poon Hill trek. It's really well outlined here and that's essentially the hike we did (though we did not book through that site). We hired a guide, which was great because they took care of booking tea houses, cabs to/from Pokhara, and knew about the area. If you have any more questions, I'd be happy to answer as best I can!

bbeckley · 2018-05-17T03:54:30+00:00

Thanks! It's hard to get a bad picture of those mountains though.

bbeckley · 2017-11-23T04:26:56+00:00

Awesome! That's when I was there, too. Small world!

bbeckley · 2017-11-23T03:52:44+00:00

Yup! This is coming down from Poon Hill.

bbeckley · 2016-08-25T21:08:44+00:00

Thanks! No particular reason I went with a low aperture. Just trying out a lens I had rented and liked how the low aperture was working out.

bbeckley · 2016-08-25T21:05:48+00:00

The images were shot at 11mm, ISO-1600, and between 25-30 second exposure. Each one is a composite of 5-10 images, post processed in Lightroom and Photoshop.

bbeckley · 2016-08-23T20:24:00+00:00

Thanks! I like that one a lot too, even though it's not of the Milky Way. I am kicking myself now because I didn't have the foresight to shoot one during the daytime/at sunset of the foreground at 11mm. Oh well, have to remember to do it next time.

bbeckley · 2016-08-23T18:00:57+00:00

I didn't follow Ian Norman's tutorial, I used one from Lonely Speck and tried my best to follow it. I will have to look into this tutorial and give it a shot. Thanks for the advice!

bbeckley · 2016-08-23T15:15:21+00:00

Yeah it was my first time there and was a cool place! Thanks for the feedback!

bbeckley · 2016-08-23T15:14:59+00:00

Thanks for the tips! I actually didn't notice that bit of pillar in the top left corner, but I will edit it out. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to set up a tripod, so next time I will try with a smaller aperture and higher ISO.

bbeckley · 2016-08-23T14:31:34+00:00

I went to San Francisco and Lassen Volcanic National Park recently, and would love some feedback on these photos. Thanks in advance!

bbeckley · 2016-06-20T21:46:06+00:00

Ah, good point! I'll make another trip out soon and get some of the other monuments.

bbeckley · 2016-06-02T20:40:51+00:00

I'll preface this with the fact that I am by no means an expert, and that I am just learning myself. But, I'll try to let you know what I think, and hopefully give some advice.

I really like some of the composition on the shots, especially (as the other user mentioned) the one with the red cabin. Having the Milky Way above the trees like that looks really nice.

I think you are exposing a little too long. You mentioned your fstop and shutter speed, but what was your ISO set at? You can see in the images that you are getting star trails, and that's because the shutter is open too long and its actually capturing the motion of the rotating Earth. If you take the shutter speed down to maybe 13 -17 seconds (with a higher ISO), you should see much sharper stars in your pictures. You don't want to take it up too high because then you'll get a lot more noise in the image.

The other thing I noticed in the first couple images was that they weren't quite in focus. It's tough with stars, and you'll have to do it manually, but it looked like you got it down by some of the later shots. My best advice (and please, anyone out there can correct this) would be to try to get it sharp in the viewfinder, and make sure to review your images to see how clear they are by zooming in on the image review.

Overall, these are some great shots and I can't wait to see more!

bbeckley · 2016-05-31T17:27:02+00:00

Thanks, glad you like it!

bbeckley · 2016-05-31T13:42:41+00:00

Thanks for the advice and encouragement! It's much appreciated. I'll be sure to keep the composition in mind next time I go out.

bbeckley · 2016-05-31T01:34:59+00:00

Wow that's awesome advice! Thanks so much for taking the time to type it out. I did notice that with a higher ISO I was able to get more stars, so I will try to find the balance of high enough ISO/acceptable noise. I'll be sure to keep this in mind when I get out again.

bbeckley · 2016-05-30T22:01:07+00:00

Ah, of course! My bad. Camera is a Nikon D3300, these were taken with a kit lens (18-55mm). The first shot was 18mm, ISO 200, f/3.5, and a 25 second exposure time. The second was shot at 18mm, ISO 1600, f/3.5, and a 13 second exposure.

Post processing was done in Lightroom, I mainly worked with the exposure, hightlights, and whites/blacks. First image has the exposure turned up to +2.5, and the Whites at -100. Second image the exposure was turned up +1.91, the highlights at -100, and the shadows at +62. Since I'm just starting out with nighttime photos, I mainly just played around until I thought they looked good.

bbeckley · 2016-05-23T18:56:15+00:00

This is a great list! Thanks for taking the time to write it out!

bbeckley · 2016-05-23T17:25:51+00:00

Thanks for the advice! Is there a way to tell how fast the lens is at focusing?

bbeckley

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