Mobius Arch with Star Trails
One of the more pleasant experiences I’ve had in the field recently was having the luxury of sitting out under the stars at Mobius Arch for 9 hours. Over 7 hours of that time was letting the following long exposure run, while the other two were spent capturing alternate perspectives as seen in Mobius Arch & Stars I and Mobius Arch & Stars V. So what does one do to keep busy during a 7 hour exposure*? (Check all that apply)
- Listen and look for swooping owls and scurrying lizards
- Watch an average of 4 shooting stars an hour
- Listen to the sound of silence
- Check email on my iPhone & post to Twitter
- All of the Above
See the answer below…
Mobius Arch with Star Trails
If you chose “All of the Above” you’re correct. It was invigorating to be in such a beautiful, dark and quiet environment. I stuck around to make sure that nothing went awry with my camera, but I also didn’t want to be my worst enemy moving my camera or in advertantly introducing light to the scene. So for 7 hours I ducked out behind a giant boulder. It was no surprise that nocturnal creatures were stirring about so between looking and listening for their presence I kept a watchful eye out for shooting stars. Seeing as it was a new moon and my headlamp was rather faint I used my iPhone as a flashlight and soon discovered I could get network coverage. While I enjoyed the serenity of the moment I couldn’t help out of boredom to check my email and update my Twitter account a couple of times. Not my proudest moment, but it happened. iPhone aside it was an incredible experience to be there in that moment to watch the Milky Way swirl above.
* Represents a combined exposure of 100’s of 30 second exposures. To me its an exposure but I realize some might appreciate the differentiation from 1 single exposure.
Technorati Tags: landscape, photography, Mobius Arch, Galen Arch, Galen’s Arch, star trail, Alabama Hills, California
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Hello darkness my old friend
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Incredible…how did you know after 7hours that you would get this exposure, or even close?
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Incredible…how did you know after 7hours that you would get this exposure, or even close?
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Great
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Just have to say, I subscribe to about 150 photography blogs and 99% of what is posted is utter rubbish, but I'm never dissapointed by your posts. Love the shot.
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Technical tour de force… lining up the arch with the north star is very cool.
Your story about the night reminds me of an evening when I made a series of night photographs of Thousand Island Lake and Mount Ritter a few years ago. Each exposure took 15 to 20 minutes or so and was followed by an equally long dark frame exposure on my DSLR. I spent several hours, mostly sitting quietly along the shore of this beautiful lake in the near darkness – a rare and wonderful experience that I perhaps think of even more than I think of the photographs.
Dan
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LOL I'm trying not to hear you singing this
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Nothing is ever 100% certain, but I knew where the North Star was and I did my best to line up the composition accordingly. The methodology for star trail photos is pretty well known so I knew the technique used would work. Over the years I've seen numerous examples of great photos using this technique in magazines and online. Glad you liked the photo and thanks for the comment Sean.
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Thanks John! I'm glad to hear you enjoy the blog and this photo in particular.
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Thanks for the comment Dan. It's amazing what you notice when you have the time to think, rely on your hearing and opening your eyes to the world of the night. A window to a new dimension of the beauty that surrounds us is opened when you put yourself in these situations. It's an amazing experience.
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Killer shot Jim. 7 hours – wow. Probably could have loaded a few movies on your phone also.
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Lovely landscape. Makes me wish I didn't live in one of the most densely populated places on Earth.
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Lovely landscape. Makes me wish I didn't live in one of the most densely populated places on Earth.
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Hey Jim,
You should make a timelapse from the individual shots.
One question? How did you deal with the hot pixels from the long exposures?
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Awesome…what about a workshop or class for others???
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Nice job, what is that bright light on the left? the moon?
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Gorgeous, but you could have saved yourself a lot of time just drawing circles in photoshop
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Just amazing
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Just amazing
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