365:103 JASON FOLEY
I wanted to share one of my favourite captures. I often joke that if I was a rock star, this would be my album cover. Let me explain.
Several years ago I purchased a Rokinon 14 mm F2.8 lens with the intention of experimenting with nighttime long exposures. I began shooting 30-second exposures every chance that I got, eventually venturing into light painting. One evening I decided to head down to our fishing dock to see if I could capture an image of the night sky while light painting the dock, adding some foreground interest to the photo.
After several shots, I decided to put myself into the image aiming my LED light towards the sky. Not pleased with the results, I then shifted to cycling the light on and off several times during the 30-second exposure to see what I could come up with. To my surprise, there were now several ghostlike figures of me in the image. By chance, I was completely dressed in black that night, so apart from my illuminated face, the rest of me was barely visible.
I later realized that as I moved around within the scene, the starlight was still able to make its way to the sensor, making me appear transparent. So it began. With the 10-second timer set, I pressed the shutter and entered the scene, standing in the center.
When the shutter triggered, my 30 seconds began. I held the LED light near my face and quickly cycled it on and off. Now in the dark again, I moved to one side and cycled the light again. One last shuffle across to the other side, and one final cycle of light. It took me at least 20 attempts as most of the time the spacing wasn't quite right, or there was motion blur in one or more of my faces.
Eventually, it all came together with the right spacing and good focus on all three of me! I call this photo The Three Jasons. A single 30-second long exposure under a star-filled sky. If I was a Rock Star, this would certainly make the album cover! I also managed to capture something else quite meaningful. In the upper left side of the photo, you can see what appears to be a smudge in the sky. That is the Andromeda Galaxy, and a few years later, it would be the first deep-sky object that I would photograph as I ventured down the rabbit hole of Astrophotography.
