Little Something Different

I've gone out the last few mornings to play with star trails. The moon is messing with my plans, but it eventually left the sky around 3:00am this morning.

This is a two part image. I didn't want to waste a twenty minute exposure with a "oooopppps" on light painting the flowers. So, I started a second exposure without moving the camera just for painting purposes. I painted several images and chose which one to layer into the star trails. I was off on my flower focus, but didn't know that until I got home.

I don't really care for the distortion factor with this 10.5mm, so next time I'm using my 18mm with no fisheye affect.

Exposure was for 20 minutes, Nikon D200, ISO 200, Nikon 10.5mm @ F2.8

Really a cool shot Mike. I like the fisheye look in this image. I also think the star trails look great. I think it's an image you can percect with a little more time.

This was the original goal for the night/morning. The smaller stars didn't show up as well as I hoped. The camera was about a foot off the water. Same settings as above, only this image was cropped.

I expected more out of this image, but no refelctions showed up. There may have been more water movement than I knew of.

This is from two days ago when I started playing with the stars over Lake Conway. I painted the trees on the far side of the lake to give a little boost.

Oh, how I love star trails... I like how you're getting so creative with them too! Please do more and inspire me to go out and do a few. The light pollution actually has a cool effect in some of these.

Neat shots, Mike! No wonder you look a little bleary eyed at church!

Seriously, very nice idea that has lots of potential for exploration. Love the second one!

Dave Hatfield

you picked a good night for this.

I like the work you did with the first two. Definitely a different take on star trails in your first photo.

Very interesting images. The combination shot of sunflowers and star trails is quite unique. I look forward to seeing more like it . . . but without the fish-eye effect.

Keep them coming.

Mike I think I like the second one out of these the best. I think the yellow color makes it a more dramatic image.

I really like the second one; the fish eye distortion on the last two may be a little extreme for my tastes...

Mike, they are all nice, but my vote is for the second one also. Keep them coming.

All are very interesting Mike but the first is my favorite.

Mike

Number two for me a clever concept.

Just for the record, I sleep while he is chasing stars! I would love to be able to go out to shoot too, but my work schedule does not allow such play. The amazing thing about these shots is that not only are they great, but he has not woke me up one single time when he is "stealthing" out of the house at 1:30 in the a.m.!!

I aim to please dear! Thanks all for the replies! I plan to do more when the moon and clouds permit. Haze is also a problem. These were in central Arkansas at Lake Conway and near a lot of city light noise. I'm just getting ideas and taking notes for now. More to come when the time is right. I did sleep in the morning and took in the sunrise over Lake Conway. I was hoping for a free breakfast from Dave Hatfield, but we didn't cross paths this morning.

Here is a fog bank rolling thu Lake Conway this morning.

Mike, breakfast is still offered but don't expect it at 3:00AM!

Dave H.

Very nice work, I really like the idea of doing 2 shots for the light painting so as not to mess up the first star shot...I'm going to have to try that! Thanks for sharing your technique on that shot!

Thanks Scott! I do think that the two shot method will be thee way to go. Nothing worse than messing up along exposure with a bad paint job. Still experimenting.

Hint: If you do this in one step, paint towards the end of the long exposure. If you start too early, the colors are dimmed or not as crisp.
Example: 20 minute exposure. Paint at the last few minutes or seconds of the exposure.