Star trails, northern lights - and more kayaks

[another view]

Here's a shot from my recent week in the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior. Short version of the story - started the 8 hour drive on Friday night and got out on the water early Saturday morning. After an 18 mile paddle to get here, we were pretty exhausted and fell asleep about 7:00. At about 3:00 the next morning, I saw the northern lights and shot a few frames.

Provia 100F, several minutes (was it 8 or 15?) at f2.8.

[Old Timer]

This must have been a great trip and an experience to remember for a long time. This type photo always gets my attention. Love the star trails and the way the reflected light brought out the canoes and long exposure gave the water a very soft feathery appearance. Nice job.

[Tuna]

Nice shot. The star trails are nice but I wonder how this photo would look with a shorter time exposure to show more character in the water (as opposed to the soft surface effect). It may also be a sharper shot as this one seems a little soft on my monitor.

[villenadecorte]

I am so impressed by the detail and shape of the water, the light reflected, the kayak and the stars, well I guess I am impressed by the whole thing.
What a shot!!!!

VillenaDeCorte

Here's a shot from my recent week in the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior. Short version of the story - started the 8 hour drive on Friday night and got out on the water early Saturday morning. After an 18 mile paddle to get here, we were pretty exhausted and fell asleep about 7:00. At about 3:00 the next morning, I saw the northern lights and shot a few frames.

Provia 100F, several minutes (was it 8 or 15?) at f2.8.

[another view]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I forgot to mention that I did a little "paint with light" with my LED flashlight on the kayaks so they would show up on film.

Tuna, I do agree that it's a little soft. Of three shots I took, one was softer (bumped the tripod?) and one was a little sharper and showed the northern lights better, but I didn't like the composition much. I should have either weighted the tripod down on the sand beach or pushed it down into the sand harder, that would probably help.

I have to disagree about the shutter speeds though - it would take about 1/30 to get detail in the water and remove any possibility of camera shake. It was taken at 3:00 a.m. so there wouldn't be anything on the film ! I appreciate your ideas though.

[shesells]

I don't feel I'm worthy to critique this shot. As far as I'm concerned it's way beyond anything I could aspire to. I'm gonna aim for a shot like that my whole life, then I could die happy. LOL
~ Kit

[another view]

I don't feel I'm worthy to critique this shot. As far as I'm concerned it's way beyond anything I could aspire to. I'm gonna aim for a shot like that my whole life, then I could die happy. LOL
~ Kit

Naah - all it takes is a tripod, cable release - oh, and coffee helps too. A bubble level on the camera is pretty important too because it's hard to see everything in the viewfinder and I have several I've taken in the past that I thought were level! I use a hot shoe mount type.

Penny, thanks for the comment. I actually had to clone out some spots near the right that were made by me, apparently a little careless with the flashlight. I could probably clone those other spots out too - didn't think about it.