Mobius Arch Star Trails

Gallery: LandscapePosted November 17, 2009648 views24 comments

The Alabama Hills are an incredible place to explore and I'm forever fascinated with Mobius Arch. I've been very lucky in that every time I visit this location inspiration strikes enabling me to capture yet another facet of this amazing formation. For this photo a little extra effort and patience was required. The net exposure time for this photo was 7 hour. Note I stacked hundreds of 30 second exposures together. I stuck around during the exposure to take in the trillions of stars in the sky, look out for swooping owls, scurrying lizards and of course numerous shooting stars. An amazing experience that culminated in this one photo.

Canon 1Ds Mark III, 15mm Fisheye, Gitzo tripod, and an entire evening.

Additional notes: This scene was photographed after sunset with a greater depth of field as one would do normally and immediately following the sequence of 30 second exposures was initiated. In post-processing I layered the image with the greater depth of field on top of the stacked images producing the star trails. I'll have to look up the image data later this evening. I'm certain the star trails were ISO 1600 f/4 at 30 seconds. As to the color the Alabama Hills turn amazing hues at sunrise and sunset. While personal taste for some is to tone down the magenta it's really not that different than what I saw. Last light and first light in this area turns the landscape surreal colors.

Comments

24 comments

Comment posted by Helio Cristovao on November 17, 2009 at 5:14 AM

And an amazing experience for the viewer also! Surreal ambiance here Jim, and impressive light resulted overall that hundreds of exposures.

Your patience and method worked really fine.

Registered on September 15, 2009, 83 Posts, 434 Comments

Comment posted by Rui Vieira on November 17, 2009 at 6:51 AM

Amazing startrails... The iluminated background works very well too. My only nit is the wb that is a little magenta to my personal taste and i will try to burn that white part of the sky a little but thats only a minor nit.

Registered on September 11, 2008, 39 Posts, 246 Comments

Comment posted by Luke Ormand on November 17, 2009 at 9:05 AM

You certainly have been rewarded for your efforts - incredible image.

Registered on February 4, 2009, 1093 Posts, 7035 Comments

Comment posted by Bob&Charly Nelson on November 17, 2009 at 9:19 AM

Fantastioc work Jim, really nice effort here

Bob

Registered on October 27, 2005, 289 Posts, 4202 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Metternich on November 17, 2009 at 9:19 AM

ISO? f/stop?

I think this is great. I agree with the burning of the bright spot.

Registered on June 19, 2009, 276 Posts, 6240 Comments

Comment posted by Stan Rose on November 17, 2009 at 10:59 AM

Interesting shot. I love the landscape here! I agree with Rui about the magenta. And that huge watermark is super annoying

Registered on September 15, 2005, 836 Posts, 17099 Comments

Comment posted by Verena & Georg Pop on November 17, 2009 at 11:02 AM

its a fine shot, imo.
but it would be much easier, if you pull your old film camera out and record this with film. (you could go sleeping while the shutter remains open for 7hrs, or spot owls or whatever)
I think its worth to keep one body and one WA lens for purposes like this.
georg

Registered on July 5, 2006, 272 Posts, 2823 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Goldstein on November 17, 2009 at 11:17 AM

Georg I couldn't agree more. Having a dedicated body for such things is a great thing to do. On this trip I made the mistake of having two bodies, but only one cable release. 1 month later I didn't make the same mistake twice. As to film for star trails... clearly that is less intensive on the post processing, but the opportunities are slightly varied with each technique. One thing that comes to mind that you can't' do with film that I've come to rely on for these and other night photos is using LiveView to maximize sharpness/focus and then initiate a photo or sequence. This trip and in past trips I've made photos similar to this focusing normally and using LiveView to focus. The later produces images that are exceptionally sharper. There is no comparison. So yes you get some upside with not having to go to such lengths and minimizing post-production with film, but the quality you get from this technique is head and shoulders above film. That being said I still have some film that I keep telling myself I'll use for star trails. We'll see if that ever happens.

Registered on March 18, 2006, 119 Posts, 878 Comments

Comment posted by Laurent Baig on November 17, 2009 at 11:47 AM

Cool!

Registered on January 12, 2005, 206 Posts, 6784 Comments

Comment posted by Dorin Bofan on November 17, 2009 at 3:02 PM

A shot that matches your beautiful experience of being out there in the night. Stunning!

Registered on April 30, 2007, 122 Posts, 3086 Comments

Comment posted by Jack Brauer on November 17, 2009 at 4:15 PM

Wow impressive shot! Great positioning. I agree that film would have been the sensible route here, but hey you made it work and that's all that matters in the end right? (As long as you got a nap that morning!

) I find the big copyright watermark distracting.

Registered on September 12, 2005, 40 Posts, 627 Comments

Comment posted by Greg Cope on November 17, 2009 at 5:49 PM

Outstanding shot Jim. Love the placement of the star trails here relative to the arch, which I know is not easy

Registered on January 22, 2007, 212 Posts, 2737 Comments

Comment posted by Floris van Breugel on November 17, 2009 at 6:26 PM

Must have been fun to sit out there and watch the sky. Given the nocturnal aspect of this, I might consider darkening the sky a bit.. it feels a little too surreal to evoke the feeling of night for me, but that's a personal preference. Small version looks a bit oversharpened. I like the positioning of the north star, well chosen!

Registered on December 19, 2008, 306 Posts, 4840 Comments

Comment posted by Chip Phillips on November 17, 2009 at 6:46 PM

Very well done Jim. I love the luminosity-the entire image seems to be really alive.

Registered on November 26, 2007, 128 Posts, 1436 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Sieren on November 17, 2009 at 7:43 PM

You left out bats! Look out for bats. You have succeed in hynotyzing me... .

Including the ambient light of twilight makes it stand out from other night shots. Of course it could be perfected with slightly less twilight but gets your attention well enough from just a thumbnail.

Registered on January 2, 2008, 360 Posts, 5321 Comments

Comment posted by Austin Booth on November 17, 2009 at 7:56 PM

Great shot...it has a very out of this world mars scape kinda look to it.

Registered on September 25, 2008, 3 Posts, 23 Comments

Comment posted by Rick Gomez on November 17, 2009 at 8:54 PM

Nice! All around great!

Registered on March 3, 2007, 206 Posts, 1853 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on November 17, 2009 at 9:36 PM

I really like this concept and how the apex of the arch is at the center of the swirling stars. My preference would be for a little less exposure all around.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Goldstein on November 18, 2009 at 1:10 AM

Thanks for all the great comments. The Alabama Hills always look otherworldly so with this red light it does indeed look alien if not Martian. The feedback on the sky is something that I thought about before posting. I've tried different versions but any darker and the foreground looks too bright. I intentionally blended the images together with a certain weight given to the frames with color in the sky. I also tried adjusting the luminosity to darken the hues found in the sky and it didn't look very good. I'll likely revisit this after I give my eyes a chance to rest and see this from a new perspective. For now I'm ok with the approach but I'm definitely going to take a second stab at this to see if based on the feedback I can get an alternate that looks better. As for the watermark comments well it is what it is :) If I didn't hear those comments I'd think the world had turned upside down. These days if its online I put the watermark on.

Thanks for the great feedback everyone. The input I receive here is the best online.

Registered on March 18, 2006, 119 Posts, 878 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on November 18, 2009 at 4:36 AM

Jim,

Congrats on a unique and pretty successful take on the arch. I can't hardly imagine the logistics of putting this one together so you be proud of this one.

This hasn't been mentioned, so perhaps it's me, but in both this and the larger view, I'm puzzled by what appear to be some anomalies in the star trails directly above the apex of the arch - and running vertical through all the circles of stars. Do you see what I mean? Is that from stacking all the images? jpg artifacts? Not sure what it is, but it kinda ruins the continuity of the otherwise seemingly flawless star trails. Had to mention it. Otherwise, this is a wonderfully crafted, executed and refreshing view of the arch.

Lon

Registered on November 24, 2006, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Goldstein on November 18, 2009 at 11:12 AM

Lon thanks for the feedback. Email me directly with what you're seeing. The only thing I can imagine what you're seeing is a bit of a moire effect from the trails in close proximity. Clearly not all the trails are full circles due to the length of the exposure. There is also the presence of the Milky Way which has an impact on the clarity of the trails as well. Shoot me an email and I'll dive into this deeper to see what you're seeing.

Registered on March 18, 2006, 119 Posts, 878 Comments

Comment posted by Phillip Noll on November 18, 2009 at 4:21 PM

Cool shot! And quite a bit of effort to pull it off! Seems a bit bright to me for a night shot. Perhaps darken it a bit? Looking forward to more as you perfect this technique!

Registered on November 17, 2003, 207 Posts, 1083 Comments

Comment posted by Koveh Tavakkol on November 18, 2009 at 9:30 PM

Fantastic!

Registered on September 1, 2009, 41 Posts, 608 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on November 19, 2009 at 4:58 PM

Jim,

I normally don't go back and look over posts that I've already commented, but for some reason I did here.

You don't have an email link here or on your website, so I'll just post a big crop from a screenshot. I viewed this on 3 different computers/monitors and two different browsers, so I think my eyes are seeing this ok. I think you may be right about a moire effect, but I hadn't really heard of that in the digital world. I also understand that the trails are not making full circles.

I really don't know what to make of it. Feel free to email me offline if you want to.

Thanks,
Lon

Registered on November 24, 2006, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments