TECHNICAL DETAILS
Sony A7ii, Sony Zeiss FE 16-35mm f/4
10″ @ f/4, ISO 1000
STAR-STRUCK ON THE ST. CROIX
Sometimes, all the stars just align perfectly, so to speak, for a rare image to come together. It’s always a mixture of the right opportunity, the right light, the ability to capture it, having the necessary gear along, and a huge dollop of luck. Such was the evening that resulted in this image of curling by luminary under the stars on the St. Croix river in Wisconsin. Emphasis on the huge dollop of luck.
Our friends live in North Hudson, Wisconsin, just a couple of blocks from a large inlet off the main channel of the St. Croix river. The ice this year set up with an uncommon degree of smoothness, and no adherence of crusty snow. It afforded the opportunity to shovel the fluffy snow layer off of an ice layer that would make most Zambonis jealous. We’ve been out to their place to ice skate or ski previously, but this time they tempted us, and another couple, with the promise of some home-brewed curling. Who could pass that up?
It was a fairly cold late afternoon when we arrived, with temperatures expected below zero Fahrenheit, so we were quite bundled up. Our friends had constructed curling stones by freezing ice in large steel kitchen bowls and pans with cabinet handles sticking out of the top for a grip. Pretty impressive! They weighed a good 15 pounds or so, and while not having quite the heft of granite, certainly seemed to fit the bill. We went down in the late afternoon sun to sweep off the sheet and inspect the prospect late in the afternoon. The sun was still up, and we got a good look at the lay of things, and practiced a few throws before our other friends arrived. I made some nice daylight shots of the action. Later, after a sumptuous meal and some liquid reinforcement, we bundled up and walked back down to the lake. The sun had set by then, and a shallow moon was pretty low in the west. It was dark enough that headlamps were a must, and soon, a chain of luminaries were lit along the edge of the course, with a glowing ball centered for the ‘house’ in each end of the sheet. It was spectacular. The stars were out and the night sky had the humidity-less clarity that below zero evenings provide. As the others started their game, I took the camera and tripod and walked about 15 yards off to the side, where I could see the lights of residential Hudson, Wisconsin, outlining the river. The moon was sufficient to give a bit of a glow to the few clouds, and the heavens shown through. It was made for production, as we say!
Shooting in the cold is always painful on the fingers, and getting a lens on, attaching the camera to the tripod and extending legs all contribute to numbness. Then you have to hold your breath during any composition and focusing, so condensation doesn’t coat the camera or blur the front element. An exercise in patience. Metering in those conditions, I find, is best done by trial and error with a healthy dose of experience. I knew I would need relatively high ISO, but also wanted to minimize sensor noise as much as possible. A standard first-pass exposure for stars with no moon using my A7ii and Sony Zeiss 16-35, I know from experience, is ISO 1600 and 20″. I attached a wireless remote to the camera to ensure I could make exposures while minimizing chances of shake in the tripod. I started at my base exposure and worked down until I liked what I saw in the preview. The best of them coming at 10″ with ISO 1000. It caught enough blur in the people to show the long exposure, while also balancing the stars, luminaries and the surrounding lights from the houses. In post-processing, I sharpened a little and color balanced the image, but did surprisingly little dodging and burning to bring out a final image that captured the magic feel of that moment. I only shot about six or seven exposures from that location in total before knowing I had one that was a keeper.
After posting this image on social media later, it received about the most comments and shares of any I’ve posted. Most people were friends looking for an invitation to experience such a captivating setting.
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