Space Copse - a photo on Flickriver

Space Copse

I had a hunch there'd be workable Milky Way viewing conditions from this location.

Was one of those places where there's no-one around so you feel comfortable leaving the camera and heading back to the car a few hundred metres away to get a spare battery. I taped a glowstick to my tripod so I could find it again in the featureless foreground and trudged across the knee-deep heathland.

At the halfway point between camera and car I heard noises. Human noises.

First of all it was just the drone of banter being carried towards me from afar but that was accompanied by a sound I couldn't place. I'd reached the road and in doing so had reached the ditch that ran alongside. Squatting low I began to make out dim silhouettes against the dark night sky. They moved smoothly, without the up/down pulse of pedestrians.

My tripod sprang to mind, glowing away in the distance. I don't get the heebees often but being this isolated began I began to run through a couple of scenarios involving drawing attention away from the camera and preparing to ensure my own personal safety.

The figures and their noises grew closer, four individual shadows in total. Their movement was still smooth but their bottom-halves were invisible against the road, denying me a clear view of their motion. It was only as they passed literally within inches of my position that I could finally make out that two were on roller skates and two were on scooters. Miles from anywhere.

They were oblivious to my camera way out to their right so my tension had been misplaced. I relaxed, but in my relief I accidentally flicked my torch on and scared the living crap out of them. Spontaneous illumination firing at them from a ditch. Miles from anywhere. They stopped momentarily, briefly swapped notes on what could have caused the light, agreed that none of them were brave enough to investigate and swiftly disappeared once more into the blackness.

I love it when there's a story behind the shot!

25sec at ISO3200 & f/2.8, 24mm on FX
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Taken on: August 2, 2013

Tags:

8345

night

milky

way

copse

trees « less

Sets appears in: • Portsmouth's night sky

Stats: 8,536 views / 23 comments

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