Starry, starry night, with Holly – four long exposure images in the South Australian outback
What do you get when you combine a tripod, a light, the Australian outback, a clear night, and two competent creative individuals such as myself, and Holly? You get a series of images that builds on my prior attempts at photographing people in astro-photography scenarios; and makes it a little bit better than before.
The majority of these images were 15 second long-exposure images, with a tiny beauty dish in use to diffuse an AD-200’s lowest power output onto Holly and her dress. She did a remarkable job of staying still for the duration, and owing to a lack of a breeze; the gown and garment stayed in one place, and one piece, too.
Difficult, given the elaborateness of the poses.




Not pictured in these images are the booming search lights and cracks of gunfire we heard in the distance as farmers from the adjacent paddock looked to eliminate feral rabbits and other vermin from their crop. The country side never changes, and what’s the point of completing photography without an element of risk?
To get to this location, a few fences were jumped over, but they weren’t very tall. Importantly, they were not electrified – which is the most important element. I’d hope that I can get back out to this location in the future to create more images. It’s a lovely place to be. Quiet, fresh air, but so full of dust. Never change a lens in the outback. Keep your lens firmly attached to the camera, unless you want a dirty sensor!
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