Star Trails and Lake Michigan, 4x5

David, you've been rewarded with the effort that this shot must have taken. Excellent exposure and highly atmospheric image.

Touching image David, unusual color range, very sensitive composition, superb light.

Thanks Mike and Pnina! This is another photo of the old decaying seawall in front of my parents' cottage on Lake Michigan. It used to be part of a huge boat dock (300 feet long), back when docks on Lake Michigan were allowed. The rate of decay is accelerating. I wonder if it will be around in another 25 years.

 

The dock was apparently built by the Jurecki's (no idea on spelling). We don't know much about them, except that they had a large home on the bluff there. The home is now a bed and breakfast next door to my parents. President Ford stayed there, along with some other locally famous people. There's quite a history.

David how are you scanning these? This one looks like it could give even a drum scan a run for it's money. Excellent.

Thanks Sean. A drum? I wish...just my Epson 4990. You would laugh at the slider settings required to pull detail from my star trails photos. I do separate scans of top and bottom with drastic, but careful use of the histogram tool.

 

The water turned out very nice in this one, though I wish there was some detail in the bottom left. I considered going in the water with a flash unit because I knew it was going to be dark. Only 3 foot waves at 11:30PM kept me from making the attempt.

David, this is a stunner. I suspect that there aren't a lot of LF photographers doing night shots like this. I love the way that the stars, poles and shoreline all lead out to the hot section and that Velvia palette works extremely well here. Perhaps, a better scan could coax some detail out of the shadow.

Thanks Jeff. It's nice of you to say so. Seeing Michael McConnell and Bobby Douglas' star trail photos inspired me to try LF.

 

I'm sure a drum could pull detail all the way to the bottom left. I like 100F for star trails because it seems to have the right contrast (Provia would also work nicely). Once you remove the magenta cast 100F looks pretty good!

Velvia 100F's magenta palette working to your advantage again David. This is a magnificent exposure with all the dynamic elements in the right places. I especially like that bright strip along the horizon. Great work.

Thanks for your impressions Leigh!

David, 39.99 for a 100mb scan at Nancy Scans. Excellent service.

LOL! Well, someday... when I start selling prints in larger volumes. For now, I mostly put these in 8x10 frames on my desk. This is good enough for me, for now :o)

Fantastic nightshot, one of the best star trails I have seen. As Leigh said, the color palette is perfect. And the shoreline has a nice echo in the star trails, all points towards the bright area at the horizon at the right side. I am quite sure there is more shadow detail in the original than I see on my (bright) monitor in the scanned version. I`m no scan expert, but why not scan twice and composite/ mask to pull out some more detail from the shadows ? Just an idea

Thanks Carsten! I did join 2 different scans together for this one. I do that a lot on these types of shots.

 

I'm surprised at the reaction to the color on this one. I never know what to expect with star trails--"it's a box of chocolates."

Wonderful "chocolate" David, I came to look at it again, it is so very beautiful!

Thanks Pnina :o)

Great shot! I remain in awe about the effort and planning into these long exposure shots. Did you plan the time and star trail lengths ... or did you 'luck out' (as if any of this is luck!)? :-)

Thanks J! Yes, I've been planning this since last summer. The sun only gets this far North once per year and I was hoping for a little glow on the left. Also, I was hoping for lots of boats traveling on the water (unfortunately high gas prices are keeping MI boaters from moving around as much!). I started this at 11:30 and ended at 3:30. I didn't want too many completely circular trails on this one, rather was hoping the primary trails would start at a well defined point in the frame and then run to the edge. I learned this from my 35mm shots last summer...

 

Looking back, I wish I had started this at 11:00 to pick up more of the glow from the sun and detail on the water. The waves were quite large and would have made a nice impact. Oh well, it doesn't look like we will have this clear of a night again for quite some time. Once it gets hot in July, it's tough with all the moisture over the lake. August/Sept is usually better... but a nice cold front would do the trick.

David, great, great and great. I really love the colors of the image... I always wanted to try this kind of night photography too, but don't know where to start... How long after the sunset did you start exposing? As you say it was exposed for 4 hours... I might finally also try something of this kind too...

 

Jiri

Thanks Jiri! It's pretty easy to do, especially with 35mm. I started about 1-1/2 hours after sunset. Just pick a subject that doesn't require a lot of DOF and set your aperture to f4-f5.6, depending on surrounding lights. I used f5.6 for this one.

 

Traditional thinking is to set your focus to infinity. I didn't for this one because of the DOF requirements of the foreground, but that works well for 35mm. Since you shoot medium format it also might require some compromises in your choice of plane of focus. I hope you try it!

David, thanks a lot for the tips... I might surely try it when I find a suitable place to shoot and keep guard of the camera for such a long time... :-) I think I'll dig out my old and for more than 2years unused Canon EOS 500 just for this purpose... Just to learn...

 

Jiri

Top 10 on photo.net! I just love it! I almost want to get a print from you.

 

Congrats!

Justin

 

p.s. you must teach me how to do this. I am amazed!