Bulb exposures with 350D

[Skippy29]

Just picked up an RC-1 remote and decided to try out bulb mode, which I understand can leave the shutter open for up to 16 minutes and some change.
The wife and I were down at the beach here in San Diego late last night, these were taken at about 11:30pm with an almost full moon.
The longest exposure I used was maybe 2.5 to 3 minutes because of the strong moonlight. First thing I noticed was how quickly this planet is rotating (look at the stars in just 2.5 minutes)
Anyway, I thought it was kinda interesting, I really like the one with the stairway in it and the way the big dipper stood out so well.

These are are straight off the camera, just resized.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v484/YZ29/bulb4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v484/YZ29/bulb3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v484/YZ29/bulb2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v484/YZ29/bulb1.jpg

[Jackal]

I'm liking these alot. The colors are awesome.

[mdm]

I love these shots. Great looking!

[InTheDark]

Absolutely awesome! Great work, now I'm so sad because I want to do similiar pictures in Beijing where I am going next week for vacation but I don't have the extra cash to pic up a remote and tripod before I go.

[Ikinaa]

great pics...

Why do you say that you can only leave the shutter open for 16 minutes?

On the 20D, I made a bulb exposure of 22 Minutes with the remote.
In the manual it's written that the counter on the LCD displays until 999 seconds, but exposure is until you release the shutter...

[mdm]

you can afford a 30.00 dollar remote and set the camera on something stable.

[jeagga]

love the third one. Fabulously amazing. Colors are fantastic. Thanks for sharing

[PhotosGuy]

don't have the extra cash to pic up a remote and tripod before I go. Not perfect, but have you ever tried a bean bag? Cut the leg off an old pair of jeans. Sew up one end & put a zipper on the other. Carry a plastic bag to fill with sand, rice, beans, etc to put inside it & just discard it before you come back.

[Curtis N]

decided to try out bulb mode, which I understand can leave the shutter open for up to 16 minutes and some change.Not sure about the 350D, but the instruction manual on the 300D says that with a fully charged battery, a single bulb exposure can be as long as bout 2 1/2 hours. You may want to check your manual again.

[Skippy29]

Ok thanks guys, I just saw the 1-999 seconds thing in the book and thought it meant that was the limit.

[Titus213]

They are all wonderful shots but I really like the stairs too with the last beach scene running a close second. Great color and there is a softness to longer night exposures like this that I really like. I've got it on the schedule to try with the 300D now that I have the remote.....

Thanks for posting these. Very nice images that are inspiring me to get out after dark with the camera.

[eljustino]

They're all very beautiful and other-worldly. The last one is completely magical - fantastic!

[felix21685]

tell me in the 2nd picture top right is that a satellite going by ?

theres a website online forget what its called you can see alot of satellites in real time going around the globe..one time i went over where az is and said ok this ones coming through where we are east to west north side..went outside and we actually saw that satellite..totally cool!

nice shots...awesome colors..very neat!!!

[Michaelmjc]

absolutely beuatiful shots! very well done.

[JakeC]

Great shot's Skippy, I've been addicted to bulb exposures too. The CMOS handles noise extremely well, this one has only had the sky and water filtered, with no in camera noise reduction. This was around about 8mins @ F8 ISO 100.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v333/JakeC/fullmoonbaysml.jpg

[felix21685]

jakeC that is an amazing picture!

[JakeC]

Thanks Felix, I don't want to hi-jack Skippys thread too much but for those interested in moonlit photography take a look at this site (http://www.mkaz.com/photo/tools/moonlight.html). The calculator works pretty well. If you're shooting digital I'd recommend it during or either side of a full moon. More light just means shorter exposures and less heating of the sensor.

Heat/noise is the only reason I wish I had a film camera for this sort of thing.:cry: You could always simulate longer exposures by stacking images though.