Astral Vortex + Repost

Gallery: LandscapePosted February 9, 2014244 views8 comments

Hey guys,

I'd like your thoughts on this one. This has been sitting on my hard drive for over a year, and I've been tweaking it every now and then.

This was taken during a meteor shower up in Joshua Tree National Park. When I first got there, the whole sky was cloudy and there was no hope of catching meteors leave alone stars. A good three hours later, the clouds drifted off, and the milky way aligned itself beautifully with the arch. I decided to try something different, by stacking a star trail image, with a Milky way shot. A couple of meteors made this shot complete. I used some light painting with a simple flashlight to illuminate the arch.

The star trail image is a combination of 16 frames, and I used 1 frame for the Milky way and meteors.

Tech : ISO 1000 , f/2.8 , 88 seconds

Look forward to hearing your comments and feedback!

Comments

8 comments

Comment posted by Kane Engelbert on February 9, 2014 at 7:18 PM

Sairam, I think the comp and color look great to me. I also can appreciate the nice blending of midtones to create a smooth transition from sky to arch. Overall I think the image is a little too dark for me but you likely intended it that way.

Registered on June 14, 2009, 63 Posts, 291 Comments

Comment posted by R.Bill Moser on February 10, 2014 at 11:16 AM

This is beautiful scene. Love the star trails. The foreground is for my personal taste a bit dark but it looks natural

Registered on January 29, 2010, 285 Posts, 4281 Comments

Comment posted by Tim Mulholland on February 10, 2014 at 3:37 PM

I like the general idea (I wish that I could capture star trails!), but what would it look like if it was lighter???

Tim!

Registered on April 24, 2006, 14 Posts, 139 Comments

Comment posted by John Williams on February 10, 2014 at 5:49 PM

Beautiful image. Against a dark background, this would probably be perfect; it does look a little dark against NPN's white. With that said, I _much_ prefer this compared to the many unnatural night scenes where photogs lighten the foreground too much IMHO.

Registered on September 6, 2007, 221 Posts, 5985 Comments

Comment posted by Sairam Sundaresan on February 11, 2014 at 10:47 AM

Thanks for the feedback guys. Here's a slightly brighter version. Do you prefer this one?

Registered on March 14, 2013, 100 Posts, 643 Comments

Comment posted by Navin Sarma on February 11, 2014 at 11:23 AM

This one is a little tough for me. I like the image overall. But it seems a little scattered in delivery. I think displaying the star trails, milky way, and meteors all together makes one lose focus the beauty of even two of those subjects. For example, the directions of the star trails and the meteors are similar but not necessarily complimentary (e.g., not perpendicular or crossing into an "X" shape). Maybe it would be better for just the milky way and meteors. Also, even though our eyes never see full star trails, it doesn't make sense to me to see static stars among st moving stars. Maybe it's just because we have an idea of how these images are made and the general public will not.

Anyways with all that crit, I still think this is a very nice image with pleasing colors and composition so please take my critique with a grain of salt.

Registered on July 17, 2011, 233 Posts, 1373 Comments

Comment posted by Morris McClung on February 11, 2014 at 6:21 PM

The repost looks better. I like the colors and the trails make for an interesting image.

Registered on May 7, 2007, 670 Posts, 19650 Comments

Comment posted by Sairam Sundaresan on February 12, 2014 at 11:31 PM

thanks Navin, I do see your point. But I was going for a surreal interpretation, so I guess the static and moving stars help in that sense

glad you like it Morris

Registered on March 14, 2013, 100 Posts, 643 Comments