Fish Habitat, Summersville Lake

[Dave Johnston]

I figure this is the correct forum for this, though it could also go to Landscape. At any rate here are two images from New Years Eve at Summersville Lake in West Virginia (drained for the winter) under a nearly full moon, in temperature around 3 °F. There are a variety of structures placed underwater in the lake to serve a fish habitat, including this sunken boat.

The first one was taken about 14 minutes before midnight, so its my last finished picture from 2017!

Same subject from a similar location, vertical to try to capture more sky. A little while after midnight, so officially my first finished picture of 2018!

Comments and suggestions are always welcome.

BTW these are also my first finished shots with the Sigma 14 mm f/1.8 Art. So far a very impressive lens.

Dave

 

[JimFox]

Hi Dave,

Welcome to FocalWorld! These are 2 really great introductory photos.

And it's great to meet another fellow Sigma 14mm f1.8 user. It sounds like you are enjoying that lens as much as I have enjoyed mine. Being able to shoot at f1.8 is almost a game changer! The thing that surprised me the most besides just how much light get lets in at f1.8 is that at f1.8 that lens still has incredibly deep DOF. Focusing at 12 feet puts everything from 6 feet to infinity into focus if I recall correctly.

Hard to tell which I like most of these, probably #2 as I always like more stars!

Also, if you look in the Landscape forum there is a thread we have going of your last photo taken in 2017 thread, so you can go add your #1 photo to that thread if you would like.

 

[Bob Denton]

Wonderful night photos you captured! And welcome to FocalWorld.

 

[Dave Johnston]

Thanks you, Jim and Bob. It was indeed a magical night with an unusual subject.

Jim, The moon was so bright that I was able to shoot these at f/4, 25 sec, ISO 100. I probably should have gone up to ISO 200 and cut the time in half, but the star trailing isn't evident at 14 mm unless I zoom in or print very large, so it was OK in this case.

But earlier in the week with less moon I had successfully shot at f/1.8 and f/2.8 with a shorter exposure time and still got the DoF I needed. I'll post those in the landscape forum in a few days. A very useful lens!

DAve

 

[Ben Egbert]

Beautiful work.

 

[Leslie Hunter]

Very captivating with the boat as an anchor. I like these.

 

[Dave Johnston]

Thank you, Ben and Leslie!

 

[JimFox]

Thanks you, Jim and Bob. It was indeed a magical night with an unusual subject.

Jim, The moon was so bright that I was able to shoot these at f/4, 25 sec, ISO 100. I probably should have gone up to ISO 200 and cut the time in half, but the star trailing isn't evident at 14 mm unless I zoom in or print very large, so it was OK in this case.

But earlier in the week with less moon I had successfully shot at f/1.8 and f/2.8 with a shorter exposure time and still got the DoF I needed. I'll post those in the landscape forum in a few days. A very useful lens!

DAve

Yeah, I look forward to the seeing the others.

I am so ready to get back out. I just got the new Nikon D850 which is supposed to be a whole stop better at High ISO noise. So essentially with the Sigma 14mm f1.8 I am expecting that any shots taken at ISO 3200 will have the same quality of the f2.8/f4 shots I took at ISO 800 on my D810. The thought is mind boggling. So we will see, it looks like I will finally get on the road Thursday. After a few stops to visit with my kids in New Mexico and Colorado I hope to spend some time in the Moab area and definitely will be shooting some stars.

 

[Dave Johnston]

Yeah, I look forward to the seeing the others.

I am so ready to get back out. I just got the new Nikon D850 which is supposed to be a whole stop better at High ISO noise. So essentially with the Sigma 14mm f1.8 I am expecting that any shots taken at ISO 3200 will have the same quality of the f2.8/f4 shots I took at ISO 800 on my D810. The thought is mind boggling. So we will see, it looks like I will finally get on the road Thursday. After a few stops to visit with my kids in New Mexico and Colorado I hope to spend some time in the Moab area and definitely will be shooting some stars.

Yes I'm excited by the night shooting opportunities that lens opens up. Have a great trip Jim!

Dave