Around midnight on a fairly chilly Saturday evening, I grabbed my gear and headed down to the small beach that is part of the Bellmere Winds Cottage Resort. It was cool and clear that night, not a cloud in the sky, and I wanted to try to capture some night sky shots. There are not a lot of camera angle options on the beach, that don't include some form of artificial light, but I think I found a couple views worth showing.
Exposures varied from 10 - 25 seconds, and ISO varied from 1600 - 3200. The sweet spot for me with my 14mm Rokinon lens, was between 10 and 20 seconds, but I was getting more useful exposures around the 15 second mark in terms of recorded detail without blurring of the stars. Too bad, as I had hoped to go at least to 20 seconds.
I think I really need to "let go" of the concern over using high(er) ISO settings. I'm going to get grain/noise either way; might as well err on the side of more detail.
I enjoyed this shoot, and all the magic that happened after the shutter clicked. I'm constantly amazed at how much detail I can pull from RAW images. Next time, I think I will try some shots from the golf course. There will be less light pollution there, but also less lake.