Magical Mystery Light (Star Trails on Mt. Baker)

coscorrosa

From an impulse trip to Mt. Baker yesterday evening. The forecast was clear, so I was planning on shooting Mt. Shuksan at sunset, Mt. Baker at sunrise, and stars in between. There was an hour delay in traffic so I missed the peak sunset light, but waited around to shoot the stars over Mt. Shuksan (and, this is hard to believe after all this time, but I've never attempted to shoot stars before!).

That didn't go so well (might have a few salvagable shots) due to interference from car lights, airplanes, and a bright planet that decided to peak over the mountain halfway through a 20 minute exposure

Around midnight I headed up to Artist Point to shoot stars over Mt. Baker, and was very surprised when I saw the first image come back on the LCD screen!



I took a lot of 3-6 minute exposures. Unfortunately the shot above was my last shot (taken around 2AM) as my battery drained on the next one.

Anyway, now it's time for a nap, as I've been up for about 30 hours on 5 hours of sleep

Jack'll do

Gorgeous colors for a midnight shot I would think. Are the colors the glow from a distant city?

Chrissiebeez_NL

beautiful! the silouetted trees give a nice depth and drama!

Robbug

Yup, gotta love light pollution Though you put it in a very pleasing color format. The yellow is coming from all the street lamps - mercury halide.

4 minute exposures will definitely capture the ambient light.

bryanj87

Love the color of the sky! You don't usually see star trails with a sky that color. Now get some sleep!

annnna8888

Great photo! The color of the sky is amazing. I see a light trail on the slope of the mountain - people going to the top maybe?
I hope you caught some well deserved sleep.

Ana

hawkeye978

Beautiful colors. I would also be interested in knowing if that is sky shine.

thapamd

Fantastic shot, Ron! I love the colors in the sky. It almost looks like you timed it just right and the sun is about to come up. Star trails can be tricky when there is light pollution, but you did an awesome job. Very sharp too!

Monday, I'm hoping for a clear night at Point of Arch, so I can do some star trail photography with those beautiful haystack rocks as FG elements. Wish me luck.

coscorrosa

annnna8888 wrote:

Great photo! The color of the sky is amazing. I see a light trail on the slope of the mountain - people going to the top maybe?
I hope you caught some well deserved sleep.

Ana

Good eye - yes, that was a group of climbers on the mountain. I caught up on sleep a little, but then fell behind again as I just got back from Mt. Rainier after shooting star trails there. This will be a fun work week

coscorrosa

thapamd wrote:

Fantastic shot, Ron! I love the colors in the sky. It almost looks like you timed it just right and the sun is about to come up. Star trails can be tricky when there is light pollution, but you did an awesome job. Very sharp too!

Monday, I'm hoping for a clear night at Point of Arch, so I can do some star trail photography with those beautiful haystack rocks as FG elements. Wish me luck.

That should be great. I've wanted to do star trails at the beach but I either gave up because I was too tired (or had to drive back home to go to work the next day), or the sky was too overcast. Just don't park the tripod *too* close to the beach

coscorrosa

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Here's another shot zoomed in quite a bit:



The light pollution wasn't at all obvious with the naked eye, but it did make the shot look quite a bit different than otherwise.

thapamd

coscorrosa wrote:

Just don't park the tripod *too* close to the beach

Oh yes! That's very good advice. Thank you.

thapamd

coscorrosa wrote:

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Here's another shot zoomed in quite a bit:



The light pollution wasn't at all obvious with the naked eye, but it did make the shot look quite a bit different than otherwise.

This one is fantastic too! Love that color in the sky.

dseidman

These are some really cool shots! I actually happen to like the second one you posted more. I had no idea that there would be so much light pollution up there. I guess it makes sense with the proximity of Bellingham and Vancouver...

Did you get a chance to read that star trails tutorial I sent you?

coscorrosa

dseidman wrote:

These are some really cool shots! I actually happen to like the second one you posted more. I had no idea that there would be so much light pollution up there. I guess it makes sense with the proximity of Bellingham and Vancouver...

Did you get a chance to read that star trails tutorial I sent you?

Thanks! Yeah I read the tutorial ( http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/725769/0 ), and I'll definitely try it out some of the techniques when I have a (smaller) subject that faces true north and a little more wide angle of a composition to have the full circular star trail and some decent foreground elements. For these mountain shots I think a partial trail actually looks good.

I used to sleep during the night between sunset and sunrise, but now that I can shoot stars at night, it means the only time to sleep is during the day

Robbug

At this rate you will be hooked with capturing the galactic center. Thats what got me to purchase a DSLR in the first place . Night photography is so... serene. Once your hooked its a whole new level imho.

Rob

coscorrosa

Robbug wrote:

At this rate you will be hooked with capturing the galactic center. Thats what got me to purchase a DSLR in the first place . Night photography is so... serene. Once your hooked its a whole new level imho.

Rob

Yeah, and another 10 hours of shooting time in the winter

What did I get myself into?

dlplumer

You are absolutely amazing. Getting to shoot with you is now on my bucket list

coscorrosa

dlplumer wrote:

You are absolutely amazing. Getting to shoot with you is now on my bucket list

It'll happen some day, I'm not going anywhere

As much as I'd like to take credit here, it was the light pollution and luck more than anything. Once I found out that road to Artist Point was open I got excited (usually doesn't happen until August), so I had to check it out.

In a few weeks the trails should start to open the snow will start to melt more and there will be a lot of little tarns around to catch reflections of Baker and Shuksan.

Doug Solis

Man for your first time....you did good. I love the compostion and the sky almost looks like the arora borealis in a monochromatic way. Well done

schmoo

coscorrosa wrote:

As much as I'd like to take credit here, it was the light pollution and luck more than anything. Once I found out that road to Artist Point was open I got excited (usually doesn't happen until August), so I had to check it out.

Light pollution ain't half bad, looking at this. The color is just jaw-dropping. So this hue is from a nearby town?

dls

spectacular images, ron. this series and the ones from rainier turned out really well. mount baker/artist point is one of my favorite places on earth. apparently it remains incredible even in the height of night, when you can't appreciate it with the naked eye. way to go in capturing on digital film what we otherwise would have missed. kudos!
-dan

MaryBoo

Could this have been caused by the northern lights instead of light pollution?

squirl033

schmoo wrote:

Light pollution ain't half bad, looking at this. The color is just jaw-dropping. So this hue is from a nearby town?

nearest town of any consequence is Bellingham, which is about 35 miles away as the crow flies. there are some little blink-and-you-miss-em towns like Deming, Glacier, etc., along the way, but they don't put out much light, not enough to tint the whole sky. Bellingham's a good-sized city, though, and could probably do the damage all by itself, especially in a 3-5 minute exposure...

coscorrosa

schmoo wrote:

Light pollution ain't half bad, looking at this. The color is just jaw-dropping. So this hue is from a nearby town?

I definitely wasn't expecting that color, probably from Bellingham, I'll be up there again several more times this year and see if I can get a repeat performance *with* enough battery power

coscorrosa

dls wrote:

spectacular images, ron. this series and the ones from rainier turned out really well. mount baker/artist point is one of my favorite places on earth. apparently it remains incredible even in the height of night, when you can't appreciate it with the naked eye. way to go in capturing on digital film what we otherwise would have missed. kudos!
-dan

Thanks Dan - Artist Point is indeed spectacular, 360 degree views of two very photogenic peaks, it's good in all seasons too, wildflowers in the summer, autumn colors in the fall, and a ton of snow in the winter (need to get up there in the winter some time).