Hereford
The Hereford Lighthouse was the final one captured for the Stars and Lights Darkest of Dark Nights book. I made a last-minute decision to drive the six hours to Cape May from our RI home to get this and Absecon photographed in time for deadline. I had several talks with the foundation running Hereford, and convince them to turn off their lights for the evening I was to arrive. While they've done a great job with the lighthouse and grounds, the issue for shooting here are the many bright lights on the lighthouse and on the property. It really is beautiful, but with all their lights on, star capture would be out of the question. The issue was moot, however, as fog clouds covered the sky my entire time here. That actually helped with capturing the beam since I no longer had to keep the shutter open for a long time in the effort to burn in the stars on the sensor. Since the beam rotates rather quickly, I could then adjust the shutter to a faster speed to stop the beam in its tracks. Had I been trying to get stars, a longer shutter would have meant more of a light "blob" coming from the tower as the rotating light would have been spread across a larger area.
September 25, 2017 10:03pm 62°, 10-15mph wind
Nikon D4, 14mm lens, ISO 6400 1/6 sec
