Star Trails Over Yosemite

[Kyle Jones]

I don't usually shoot star trails, in part because I'm usually in a rush to do something or I just don't want to tie up my camera long enough to get good ones. When I went to Yosemite last April to shoot Tunnel View at night, I had a few hours between moon set (when I shot the ground) and when the Milky Way would move into position, so I went ahead and let my camera capture a series of 3 minute images that I could stack for some star trails. I've shared the Milky Way image here before, so here is the star trail version.

I've written up a blog entry on my website going through some of my night photography from 2017 including some of my thoughts about planning and tools. Fell free to stop by and check it out here.

Any thoughts are welcome.

 

[AlanLichty]

I like the result - nice way to get something out of waiting for your desired subject to come into view. The moonlit ground layer looks nice in this image - just enough light to let us see where we are but not enough to detract from the stars.

 

[Mike Mancil]

Spectacular!

 

[Douglas Sherman]

I don't usually shoot star trails, in part because I'm usually in a rush to do something or I just don't want to tie up my camera long enough to get good ones. When I went to Yosemite last April to shoot Tunnel View at night, I had a few hours between moon set (when I shot the ground) and when the Milky Way would move into position, so I went ahead and let my camera capture a series of 3 minute images that I could stack for some star trails. I've shared the Milky Way image here before, so here is the star trail version.

I've written up a blog entry on my website going through some of my night photography from 2017 including some of my thoughts about planning and tools. Fell free to stop by and check it out here.

Any thoughts are welcome.
View attachment 4230

Very nice, Kyle. I just keep staring when I look at the image.

 

[JimFox]

Very nice work here Kyle. For me star trails can work, but usually not very often. In order to work they require the right ground anchor and the rotation of the stars needs to balance in conjunction with the ground layer. I think you achieved that here.

I went and read your blog entry, that was a very informative read and I would highly recommend it to everyone to check out.

 

[Bob Denton]

Awesome look!

 

[Leslie Hunter]

So different, I like it.