Last Sunday I decided to try my hand at an eight minute exposure of the Space X launch at Vandenburg Air Force Base and then figure out how to develop it later. I wasn’t sure how long of an exposure it was going to be when we left home because there hasn’t been a launch and return of the first stage to Vandenburg yet, this would be the first time and I wanted to capture the launch and returning first stage module.
We set up our cameras on Santa Ynez Peak amidst all of the telecommunications towers and antennae, you can see the rims of two of the dishes on the bottom left edge of the photo. Even though my lens didn’t have the ultra wide angle of view needed to catch the entire movement of the first stage module, it was still able to capture the majority of the ascent and the two reentry deceleration burns, as well as the atmospheric haze and glow at the top of the frame that looked like a lit up nebula, but also some of the streaky cloud-like flare from the ascent.
This is a scan of a test print on Fomabrom 111 VCFB paper from an HP5+ 4×5 sheet film negative, developed in a divided Stoekler two part development solution, that I shot on an Intrepid 4×5 MkII with a Geronar 90mm f/8 lens (this has approximately a 65 degree angle of view, equivalent to a 28mm lens on a full frame 35mm film system).
Timothy Dahlum 