In the Crem...

Many said that I'd never use my fisheye lens - an equal number said I never should use my fisheye lens....

So, two fisheye days in a row and my quest for moon shots resulted in no moon. Got to the local crematorium far too early and it only loomed, deep, big and yellow over Laverstock Down as I was waiting for the bus back, feet frozen, concentration levels in free-fall...

So, to my seven and a bit minute time exposure, the fisheye this time on the camera format its made for, so a true 180 degree angle, diagonal corner to the opposite corner. As there was no moon and almost nil ambient light (to the naked eye) it was difficult setting up the tripod. The area around this giant war memorial had been re-turfed and in others newly dug, possibly with flower seeds - I for one ALWAYS respect where I am treading and endeavour to damage nothing, so the tripod was literally set up on the base of the cross itself.

Did it look like this at the time? Well, not quite, but not as differently as you might think. The colour is unchanged, the hue from the streetlamps surrounding, over the hill there is a housing estate and the light on the stem of the cross was from cars waiting to join the main road at the bottom of the Crem, about 400 yards away. Their headlights have shone through leaves, giving the pattern.

The main - and big difference was to actually add even more barrel distortion than it inherently had, in Photoshop. This sent the corners a bit wild, so I had to clone those back in, 'mending' them with parts from the main image. To lessen this, I also added some vignetting, which also holds the corners in and lastly some extra sharpening, to really make the star-trails stand out.

I did consider black & whiting it but the colour on the cross was too much to let go.