« Posts tagged star trails

Into the Vortex

posted in Rock Art

Into the Vortex

Since I posted a photo yesterday with ruins and star trails, I figured I would follow up today with a photo of rock art and star trails, which is something I’m hoping to do more of in the very near future.

After photographing sunset in Arches National Park, I set out to visit the Moab Maiden (Moab Princess) for a night photography session. Since I knew this petroglyph panel faced approximately north, I had envisioned making an image looking up past the Maiden to Polaris with the other stars circling around. I ended up taking this shot with the aperture wide open so that the very close foreground and the stars were out of focus. This is something that I have not seen done before, since most photographers prefer nice sharp star trails, but I think it looks good and adds a feeling of depth to the ‘vortex’ beyond the Maiden. I lit up the boulder and petroglyph by bouncing the light from my headlamp off of a nearby cliff. I’m very happy with the way this image came out.

The Moab Maiden is surely one of my favorite petroglyphs around, and I’ve enjoyed trying to create a unique image at this location.

>> RMNP Spring Fling 2011

Mule Tower Star Trails

posted in Ruins

Mule Tower Star Trails

Even though this blog was mainly created so that I could share my rock art photos, I will occasionally share some of my photos of ruins as well. They kind of go hand-in-hand since I am usually out searching for both at the same time.

Here is my first photo of ruins posted on this blog, and it is actually one of my favorite photos taken so far this year. Back in April, my friend Jared and I headed up to the Mule Canyon Towers on Cedar Mesa just before sunset so that we could stick around for some night photography. I had this particular photo in mind when we went up there, so shortly before it was really dark out, I composed this shot on my tripod and waited for it to get a little bit darker out. My goal was to get some nice star trails behind the tower and through the window opening. Once it was dark enough out, I locked my shutter release cable and started the waiting. After about ten minutes a few clouds started to move across the sky and right into my shot! I was a bit upset by this and almost gave up, but fortunately I let my camera keep going. After about thirty minutes I finally decided to end the shot and pack up my gear. I had pretty much written off this shot as a failure at that point.

A few days later when I was back at home and going through all of my photos from the trip, I came across the shots that I took that night. I decided to process them and see how they turned out. To my surprise, I actually liked the way the clouds added some interest to the sky and was glad I did not give up on this shot!

For those of you wondering how the tower was lit, the almost-full moon was rising behind me and provided plenty of nice light on the tower so that I did not have to add any additional light to the scene.

>> Mule Canyon