My truck.

My truck under the starry sky, camping last month.

Thanks,
Rick

Hello Walterick,

I really really like this picture. The different lights at different levels i think gives this image a really beautiful quality and interest to it. I also like the foreground trees and the outline of the truck. Man, that is really neat! Maybe try putting the picture in for a longer period and see how you like longer start trails (although it all depends on YOUR taste). Also try another picture where the car shadow like it is in this picture is the primary focus of your picture, and then have the star trails in the background. To do this you would undoubtedly put the car a lot closer to make it the primary focus point of the picture. I think that could make for another breath taking picture of something we see everyday (a boring car or truck), turned into real beautiful art. But all you really need here is to print the sucker in poster size and hang it up with pride...reall, really, big. Excellent job!

Mando

Hey walterick,
great image. I like the negative space above the silhouettes of the trees and just the hint of the truck from the highlights. I'm a little ( or alot) confused as to how the stars came to look like that. I would guess the exposure was many seconds long but all the stars moving in a similiar circular pattern? Personally i'm not crazy about the streaks of light in the sky. I would have preferred a simple few stars or a moon, or even just the space as the colors are fantastic. But still a Great image.

The stars came to look like that because the earth rotates in a circular pattern, which when you leave the camera on for hours at a time, it leaves star trails. The longer the exposure, the longer the trails of the stars.

Mando

Rick

I like it and then don't like it but I keep being pulled back to it.

I love the colours in the lower part of the photo and the stars, but I think I would have cropped it at the top a little. Too much dark space. I also didn't notice the truck at first so I would have tried to give the truck a bit more light - how I have no idea. - Just my thoughts.

LOVE the colors!
I like how is fades from the yellow, the a little spot of orange then to red then black all while showing some stars.
Thanks for posting this over here Rick!
Brian

Very, very nice Rick -- how long was the exposure?

Woohoo! Thanks Brian! My best Christmas present I'm sure!

Thanks to everyone for your comments. I must add that there are two differences between the slide (Velvia 50) and the print which I was unable to compensate for:

1) the star trails have "jpeggedness" toward the top and in the slide they are flawlessly smooth
2) the truck was a much more obvious feature in the slide. It had more light on it and was much more defined.

(hope this doesn't ruin it for anyone) The colors in the sky came from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel which was just left out of the frame. It was beautiful to behold. I did take shots of the sky with stationary stars with the colors popping. It didn't scan well but the slide is brilliant. I did hear later though that the aurora borealis was visible this far south that same night...

BTW: the shutter speed on this one was approx 15 minutes.

I appreciate the time you all took to comment.
Mando: thanks, for suggesting this is poster material :) That is a compliment of the highest order to me.
Gahspidy: yes, the reason the stars moved was because the shutter was open for so long that the earth rotated :) It's a technique I am learning to master and incorporate into different kinds of shots. Thanks for the compliments!
Reading: I cropped the top a bit out of curiousity before posting but decided to leave it in. Thanks for making that suggestion. If it ever goes 8x10 that will be the part to get cropped! Glad that the image isn't letting you go :)
Brian: thanks for the compliments and the Christmas gift :)\
Aaron: thanks for the compliment. I had the shutter locked open for about 15 minutes. Give or take. I don't ake notes on my shutters like I used to I was too excited to shoot :)

Here's another picture of the same technique; under the full moon.

Thanks again!
Rick

Ahh, makes sense. I did not realize the exposure was that long. I have done some night shots but with exposures of up to 15-30 seconds as there was enough available light to keep the exposure down. great effect.

Incredible - Now that is a picture I would be prepared to pay money for. I take it the exposure is shorter in this one - size of star trail. How many shots do you take to get these?

PS. Played around with Paint Shop Pro last night trying to learn how to use the tool and down loaded the truck. I added a little fill in flash and hey presto the truck is highlighted a lot better. If you want I can send you the change. I also tried cropping and did not like the result so I guess you were right to leave it as it stands.

Good shooting.

Hey Roger

Thanks for the comments! I actually grabbed both of these shots on one try. The Arches Park one was my lesson that moonlight turns into sunlight when exposed for long enough. I had no idea what I was doing! I was pretty miffed that the moon was out that night as I wanted a dark sky to silhouette my rock formaiton against. Oh well! Now I wait for the full moon to shoot at night to get that "creepy" daylight feel. Here's another one from my gallery exposing moonlight for sunlight:

http://gallery.photographyreview.com...cat=500&page=3

I would love to see your version of the truck shot! I'm always up for constructive feeedback on my work. Please post it here if you want as I feel it's a part of the critique process. Otherwise, feel free to email or PM it to me.

Thanks again!
Rick

Quote:

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Originally Posted by walterick

Hey Roger

Thanks for the comments! I actually grabbed both of these shots on one try. The Arches Park one was my lesson that moonlight turns into sunlight when exposed for long enough. I had no idea what I was doing! I was pretty miffed that the moon was out that night as I wanted a dark sky to silhouette my rock formaiton against. Oh well! Now I wait for the full moon to shoot at night to get that "creepy" daylight feel. Here's another one from my gallery exposing moonlight for sunlight:

http://gallery.photographyreview.com...cat=500&page=3

I would love to see your version of the truck shot! I'm always up for constructive feeedback on my work. Please post it here if you want as I feel it's a part of the critique process. Otherwise, feel free to email or PM it to me.

Thanks again!
Rick

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Here is the version with fill in flash

Very nice picture Rick !

I can confirm it's a northern lights , you can believe me ;)

If you want to avoid the artifacts in the star trails , you should resize your image at 50% at each steps.

Greetings from Quebec city , Canada !

p.s: sory for my english , I usualy talk french.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by walterick

my lesson that moonlight turns into sunlight when exposed for long enough

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You're quite right, moonlight IS sunlight.
I guess techincally starlight is sunlight, just not our sun.

Oh my god. That moonlight picture is AWESOME!
When I first looked at it, I thought you had masked in a sunlight photo with a nightime star-trail shot. It's beautiful! I had no idea you could actually get colors out of moonlight since everything has such a pasty-white look to it in a full moon.
I can't wait to try that on our next full moon.

Killer job!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by walterick

Woohoo! Thanks Brian! My best Christmas present I'm sure!

Thanks to everyone for your comments. I must add that there are two differences between the slide (Velvia 50) and the print which I was unable to compensate for:

1) the star trails have "jpeggedness" toward the top and in the slide they are flawlessly smooth
2) the truck was a much more obvious feature in the slide. It had more light on it and was much more defined.

(hope this doesn't ruin it for anyone) The colors in the sky came from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel which was just left out of the frame. It was beautiful to behold. I did take shots of the sky with stationary stars with the colors popping. It didn't scan well but the slide is brilliant. I did hear later though that the aurora borealis was visible this far south that same night...

BTW: the shutter speed on this one was approx 15 minutes.

I appreciate the time you all took to comment.
Mando: thanks, for suggesting this is poster material :) That is a compliment of the highest order to me.
Gahspidy: yes, the reason the stars moved was because the shutter was open for so long that the earth rotated :) It's a technique I am learning to master and incorporate into different kinds of shots. Thanks for the compliments!
Reading: I cropped the top a bit out of curiousity before posting but decided to leave it in. Thanks for making that suggestion. If it ever goes 8x10 that will be the part to get cropped! Glad that the image isn't letting you go :)
Brian: thanks for the compliments and the Christmas gift :)\
Aaron: thanks for the compliment. I had the shutter locked open for about 15 minutes. Give or take. I don't ake notes on my shutters like I used to I was too excited to shoot :)

Here's another picture of the same technique; under the full moon.

Thanks again!
Rick

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WOW! I like this one better than the truck!
This is the one i'd make a poster of!
If you do, make 2 & send me one!
Congrats, Mark.