Majesty at Night
It is 1am. You are tired and about to leave for home. But when you’re met with such a scene (and you also happen to suffer from the condition known as obsessive photographic disorder) you simply sigh and resign to the calling. You slowly take out your camera and the reluctant side of you tells you that you’re crazy because you already know that you’re going to be spending more than just a few minutes, first waiting for that cloud to move just a little bit more to the left, then perhaps for that thicker cloud to obscure the moon so that you can balance your exposure better. You know it’s going to take ages, but now you’ve made your decision and there’s no turning back. You start shooting. Oh wait, you’ve got no tripod. What exposure do we need at the lens’ widest possible aperture of f/2.8? 1 whole second. Sigh. You try your very best at camera-holding technique. Hmm, not that bad, but not perfect either. You throw yourself to the ground and see whether you can get a decent composition with the camera supported on the ground. No. Great. You stop to think. The clouds are moving fast and you start wondering if you’ll lose the best moment. What do you do? Hmm, what about resting the camera on one of the supports intended for the cloisters which were never built? First you have to see if the composition has to be sacrificed. You look through the viewfinder and… oh, the universe is kind to you! Composition is good. How lucky you are that Christ Church’s Tom Quad was left unfinished! You fire the first shot and excitedly look at the picture. Looks good. Even Saturn shows through the clouds! Now it’s just a matter of waiting for however long it takes, snapping a few shots whenever a nice cloud moves where you want it. Nearly an hour later, you snap the picture you were hoping for and happily cycle back home. And that, my friends, is the story of this picture. Enjoy!