Last night, or I should say this morning, I got a sudden urge to photograph Star Trails in Alaska. I’ve rarely posted night sky images on this blog, but this definitely is worthy of your time. The sky has been really clear most of our time in Alaska this week. So, I knew it would be great conditions for Star Trails in Alaska, even if it was cold.

And boy was it cold. It was less than 20 degrees and was windy so it felt even colder. That wouldn’t be so bad except if you know anything about shooting Star Trails in Alaska, it takes a long time. I set my camera to take 30 second exposures, so every half-minute, I had to take the next photo. I did this over a hundred times, so I was actively shooting for over an hour for the image you see above. And you’ll see below most of the files I captured.

Then, if you zoom in on one of those files, it looks like this:

So, after some photoshop and some technical mumbo-jumbo, I created the final shot you see here. I’m pretty obsessed. I love the composition with the trees and mountains. I also love that soft spot of light behind the tress to make them pop out against the background. That is exactly why I chose this particular landscape to photograph. It turned out great!

Talk to you soon,
Dale