I tried shooting the night sky again tonight, and failed miserably, just like last night. Perhaps it’s my post-processing. Perhaps it’s the camera. Or a little of both, and a lot of my own fault. Nevertheless, today I learned that despite walking about a kilometre or two away from the nearest light sources, the lack of lighting on Martinique still gives off a surprising amount of light pollution.

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Table of Contents

1. Day One — Our Airbnb Host Was Nowhere to Be Found.
2. Day Two — Like a Bloody Fire Engine!
3. Day Three — Things You Need to Know About Renting Cars and Dining.
4. Day Four — I Know Where the Rum’s Gone!
5. Day Five — The Diamond Rock / Rocher Du Diamant.
6. Day Six — A Beautiful Sunset.
7. Day Seven — Beaches and Nudists.
8. Day Eight — How to Avoid Crowded Beachs on the Weekends.
9. Day Nine — The Volcano and Jardin de Balatan.
10. Day Ten — Banana Museum.
11. Day Eleven — Sunsets.
12. Day Twelve — the One With Me Being Lazy.
13. Day Thirteen — Les Trois Ilets, Pointe Du Bout, and the Museums.
14. Day Fourteen — Anse Michel, Anse Trabuad, and Driving Down a Road Narrower Than Our Car.
15. Day Fifteen — Astrophotography of the Night Sky with a Fuji X100T.
16. Day Sixteen — Trying Some More Astrophotography with the Fuji X100T.
17. Day Seventeen — Restaurant Pignon Nouvelle Vague in Les Trois Ilets.
18. Day Eighteen & Nineteen — Probably the Best Vacation in My Life.

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Please remember that these images are heavily compressed for the web.

The camera in the header photo was positioned at the Milky Way, set to f/2, ISO 6400 and the shutter was opened for 20 seconds. I could and should have tried a 15 second shutter speed too— perhaps I would have picked up less light pollution, of which there is a tonne here, and would have been able to push the exposure and shadows more.

This was shot at almost the same settings — I chose f/2.8 instead of f/2. I also moved to a different vantage point and the camera was pointed closer to the horizon. That was stupid.

Same shot as the one before it, but at f/2. More light gathered from the Milky Way, and less light pollution. By the way, I used gradient filters to remove a lot of it.

This time I pointed the camera higher up towards the sky, away from the horizon. ISO 6400, f/2 and 20 second exposure.

The final shot is probably the best. My X100T was set to the same settings as above, but I pointed the camera even higher up.

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Not pleased with the results to be honest, and I don’t think I’ll be attempting any more astrophotography with the Fuji X100T.