Chasing Ghosts -- Exhausting Work
Even though, I personally, don't believe in ghosts, I love a good spooky story.
It has to make the hair on your neck, stand up and give you goose bumps.
And, it has to be reasonably, believable.
Based upon leads from several sources, we decided to visit this country road late last night.
No witches or, goblins were captured in these photos.
But, the Map It Okinawa dude and I, learned a lot from our excursion.
Chasing ghosts in the mountains can be dangerous.
This two lane highway is very dark after 10:45 in the evening.
There are no streetlights on this winding road and parking a car is nearly impossible.
Wanting to take several shots from the same position, I used a tripod.
The exposure on this image was f/3.5 20.59 seconds at ISO 100.
Vehicles, speeding along the road made long exposure shots a bit difficult.
So, I switched the camera to ISO 400 for the remaining shots.
Illumination coming from vehicles passing in front or, to the rear enhanced some photos.
Many, with the glare of oncoming headlights, were deleted.
Exposure above: f/3.5 14.35 seconds at ISO 400
Notice the weeds and drainage ditch in the lower right corner of this photo.
My tripod was set up, straddling the ditch and, to the right of the white line.
It is a narrow, two lane road, with barely room enough for two cars to pass each other.
When vehicles came from both directions, I would jump across the ditch for safety.
It would probably have been a good idea, to wear white clothing.
But, I didn't want anybody, thinking, I was a ghost !
Exposure on this image: f/3.5 12.4 seconds ISO 400
One of the lessons learned on this visit was, after midnight may be a better time.
Traffic, going both ways, ruined more than a few shots.
Exposure: f/3.5 7.20 seconds
A vehicle, coming from behind, lighted this scene up nicely.
But, passing clouds, covered the star, above the silhouetted mountain.
Maybe, we'll do this again, on a clear moonlit night.
Exposure: f/3.5 10.29 seconds
In this long exposure, you can see the star and, some streaking taillights.
Exposure: f/3.5 32.3 seconds
It was nearing 11PM when this shot was taken and, we decided to move along.
Notice, the star above the mountain, became covered by clouds, again.
This would be the last photo taken at ISO 400.
We were moving to an area with some better lighting.
Exposure: f3.5 27.94 seconds
Back closer to a major highway and, civilization, they have streetlamps.
So, I took this shot of the road, leading up the mountain.
Exposure: f/8 10 seconds ISO 100
Deciding to go for more depth of field, I took this shot a f/11 15 seconds.
There was no traffic, coming my way and, I liked that.
So, I figured, I'd take another shot at f/16 30 seconds.
Now, you can see what it looks like when lights come from both directions.
And, I grab my tripod, jump out of the highway and say, "Let's get out of here."
Now, I don't mind going after a good ghost story for y'all.
It's just that, I don't think, I'm ready to joint the Ghost Association in the sky, yet !
