Moonlit Anza Borrego

This is another experiment. The full moon rose in the late evening while we were in Anza Borrego. I took an experimental shot of the mountains behind the visitor center lit by the full moon. There was a lot of wind, so the trees are very blurry. The sky color is quite interesting here. Hasselblad 500 C/M, Fujichrome 400, 4 minutes at f/5.6. File 645-09.

Star Trails Diptych from Anza Borrego

This was a very interesting experiment. The image on the left was taken with the Hasselblad on the roof of the visitor center at Anza Borrego State Park. Rika had the great idea of light painting each of us into the scene while the shutter was open. So we took turns shining the flashlight onto the other person while they stood still. Exposure time was 20 minutes. We look a bit ghostly.

The image on the right was taken at almost exactly the same period of time using the Canon 30D on a second tripod, looking at the same scene. This image is a composite of 45 digital images, each 59 seconds long, for an effective 45 minute exposure. Note the color difference in the color of the sky between the two different cameras.

I did not set out to put these two images side-by-side. I was talking to another photographer about my compositional 'mistake' in the image on the left - that I have Rika and I looking out of the frame, not into it. He suggested a diptych, with us looking into the adjacent scene. Works nicely.

Files: 645-11, df110322-930 to -974

Joshua Tree, Ryan Campground, Joshua Tree National Park

This is my personal favorite of all of the star trail images taken in March. This is a rather grand, solitary joshua tree. While the shutter was open on the Hasselblad, the Marines at Twenty-nine Palms fired off some high altitude flares, and this nicely backlit the tree. Film was Fujichrome 400, 19 minute exposure at f/5.6. File number 641-08.

Headstone Rock, Ryan Campground, Joshua Tree

This image was also taken in the area of the Ryan Campground in Joshua Tree using the Hasselblad and Fujichrome 400 film. The colors of the stars really stand out here. This was a 15 minute exposure. File number 641-07.

Star Trails from the Happy Hut, 4 March 2011

This was taken on the evening of March 4, 2011. It is a view from the front of the "Happy Huts" at the bed-and-breakfast establishment that is immediately outside the main north entrance to Joshua Tree National Park. The nice orange glow comes from the Palm Springs area, fairly far away over the mountains. The main constellation in this view is Orion. The star Betelgeuse is the brightest streak in the far upper right part of the image. Clouds were rolling through as the exposures were taken. This is a series of 59-second images taken over a one hour period. Camera: Canon 30D digital SLR.

Long Star Trails, March 3, 2011

This image was taken looking due north from Ryan Campground, Joshua Tree National Park. It is a composite of 59-second images taken every minute over a two-hour period. Notice the colors in the stars themselves. Camera: Canon 30D digital SLR.