My pics just got here in the mail ... and ... I GOT STARTRAILS ... AND A METEOR, ALSO!

I am so beside myself, I can't see straight, much less type here!! It is just soooo cool, and the colors are WOW!!!

 I did that "hat trick" and it worked, it worked, it worked!!! Okay, okay, I'll try to contain meself, but it sure is hard!! Oh golly, I got startrails!!! I did it !! I did it!!!!!

Hat Trick ... (I got good teachers here.)  

Get camera ready, and cover it with a "big hat", press and lock shutter button. Slowly remove hat, wait, wait, wait ... for however many secs/minutes. then cover camera with hat, unlock button.  Voila ! 

Now, I didn't have a "hat" to use, so I just cut off one of those beef jerky round containers that would fit just over my camera lens and covered that b.j. container with Scott's black electrical tape all over, inside and out.  Hey, it works !  (I think I gotta get Scott more tape!)

When I did my pics, I would either set it on the porch rail, or prop it up with whatever I could find, place the homemade "hat" over the lens, press the shutter and locked it, removed the "hat" and waited for a bit, and then covered it back, and released the shutter.   

That's the way I did it!

Roseann Johnston's Startrails

July 13, 2001

In the top 2 photos with the trees in them, I had the camera facing south. The one that looks like it has a corncob pipe in it is actually the part of our satellite thingy for TV. I had the camera laying flat on the porch rail ... all the while hoping the kitties wouldn't leap on the rail.  These were taken on July 13, 2001, around 9 p.m.

Brenda Culbertson scanned these 3 of my photos and sent them to me.  I used a Canon FTb w/50mm lens. Oh, settings were that side ways "8" infinity, and aperture was f/ 1.8. And I used Poloroid 35 mm 400 speed film. Not bad especially since I didn't have a tripod and cable release at the time!

Roseann Johnston, AAAA
Vincent, AL
[email protected]