We can’t go too long without another star trails photo, can we?
Title: Treehouse Star Trails
Info: Nikon D90, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8, stacked photos totaling 100 minutes, stacking 200 individual photos of 30 seconds each (ISO 800, f/4). The almost vertical streak near the middle is a shooting star. Light painted the trees by aiming a bright flashlight down on the wooden deck where the camera was. 21 June 2012.
Photographer: Ken Lee
Taking long exposure star trails photos aren’t necessarily always heroic, I’m-freezing-in-the-middle-of-the-night-desert affairs. The above photo, for instance, was taken not long ago when I was staying in a little cabin called The Treehouse in Guerneville, Sonoma County, California, USA.
I set up my camera on a tripod on the main deck, with the camera looking almost straight up in the sky, right at the tops of the trees.
I “light painted” the trees by pointing my absurdly bright flashlight down at the wooden deck. Why? Because I didn’t want the trees to be really white colored or overexposed by the bright flashlight, and pointing out down at the wooden deck created a much warmer light. I did this for easily less than a minute, taking up only two individual photos (this is “stacked”, with each individual photo being 30 seconds in length). I piled some furniture in front to keep critters away.
Then….I went to sleep.
The almost vertical streak near the middle is a shooting star. It’s a one hour, 40-minute exposure in total. Cool, eh?
Find out more about star trails photography, including how to stack photos here.
Equipment: Nikon D90, Tokina AT-X 116 Pro DX AF 11-16mm f/2.8 Lens For Nikon
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