I left a background shot at a higher ISO in the mix in order to create a ‘pixie dust sky” effect with some single stars shinning through into the final exposure. Cloud cover was a major challenge in this shoot. Also, I was running up against sunrise. The last 60 or so images of this […]
Polaris is nicely framed above the tree tops in my first stacked 4 hour long shoot. While I am proud of this photo, the cloud cover did not always play well with me during this shoot, leaving me to heavily edit many shots in this stack in order to preserve the star trail. My principal […]
This was a proof in concept experiment for me on two fronts: 1. Can I successfully take star trails using the stacked image method? 2. Is it possible to take a star trail pic inside a major metro area like Chicago? Both questions were answered with a resounding yes, opening the doors to me to […]
My first star trail from a mountain top. This was a treat to edit. A long exposure singe take does give you a lot of background light to play with, even in a very dark space – allowing me to nicely bring the salt flats and mountain range into exposure.
A single car cruised through my shot, streaking a break light video through my shot. I laid on the salt flats and looked up at the stars at some of the most beautiful stars I’ve ever seen. It’s so crystal clear in Death Valley, there’s absolutely the most minimal light pollution. Yet, even here – […]
I waited till after moon set to open the shutter and capture these beauties spinning between the trees. I made two edits of this one, color and black and white. I probably prefer the color edit between the two.
I came out to Big Pine Key in Florida to try and film the perseid meteor shower. I had a very short window of time to work in, as the meteor shower coincided with a waning gibbous moon. I tried to take a few star trails the day I arrived with the moon still up […]
While at a work conference in Las Vegas, I landed the day before the conference started, grabbed a car, and gunned it on interstates and back roads to the Mojave Preserve in California. Time was of the essence and I had a new 10.5mm Prime lens to play with. I found a cool cross road […]
Cloud cover – the big bane of single exposure star trail photography – depreciated an already shaping up to be sub par star trail. I thought that framing the shot from the tree tops would be a good foreground. I was still a bit of a coward about straying away from the actual sky itself […]
Sometimes a parking lot will do. I took this in a hotel parking lot in Douglas, Michigan on a weekend trip out of the city. This shot was my first star trail with my 50mm prime lens, which can go down to f1.8, letting more light in. I loved the deep star trails etched by […]
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