Moosehead Lake, Maine

2013-10-03-169961

2013-10-03-169974-1

2013-10-03-169974

2013-10-03-169998

2013-10-03-169998

2013-10-04-170022

Milky Way over Spencer Bay

This is another Milky Way shot at Spencer Bay, Moosehead Lake, Maine on October 4, 2013, 12:48 AM. This is a composite of two photos: the sky was shot at ISO 3200 and a 30 second exposure, the ground at ISO 1600 and a 4 minute exposure, plus long exposure noise reduction. Both were shot with a Nikon D700 and 14-24mm f/2.8 lens @ 14mm and f/2.8. A little bit of artistic star bling was added with StarSpikes Pro to make them pop.

Milky Way at Play

The Milky Way shines over a swing at Lily Bay State Park on Moosehead Lake, Maine on October 4, 2013, 11:33 PM at one of Mike Taylor's night photography workshops. Several other photographers are shooting along the beach. The bright star in the middle is Vega. I set the tripod low on the ground for this shot and combined two exposures in Photoshop: ISO 3200, 30 seconds, f/2.8 for the sky and ISO 1600, 4 minutes, f/2.8 for the ground. The orange glow is light pollution off in the distance, color shifted and saturated with Lightroom to look like sunset. Shot with a Nikon D700 camera, 14-24mm f/2.8 lens, Promote Control, and Really Right Stuff TVC-34L tripod, leveling base, & ballhead @ 14mm.

Panorama of the northern lights over Mt. Kineo from Kineo Island.

2013-10-08-177185

Northern lights seen from the base of Mt. Kineo on the North Bay of Moosehead Lake in Maine, October 8, 2013, 20:37

2013-10-08-177196

2013-10-08-177203

2013-10-08-177206

2013-10-08-177207

2013-10-08-177210

Rift Star Trails

I like coming up with new types of star trails that haven’t been done before, it’s challenging to think outside the box with so many creative people in this world! For about a year I’ve been tinkering with various ways of presenting a rift in time/space with star trails in a spherical panorama, influenced by many scifi movies and TV shows that I’ve enjoyed over the years. More recently, Interstellar got me thinking about it again and playing around with different projections of vortex star trails. Last week Sathya Narayanan of http://liketheocean.com/ made some of this a lot easier with his new Photoshop scripts that are quicker than manually doing this with custom macros and droplets. This is a compilation of several images shot on the night of October 8, 2013 from the North Bay of Moosehead Lake at the base of Mt. Kineo. The northern lights and sky are a single shot at 11:43 PM, the lake is a stack of 243 images from 10:22 PM to 12:41 AM for a brighter reflection, and the “rift star trails” are 125 frames from a single star field shot at 9:52 PM when the northern lights were dim. I layered and masked everything in Photoshop. The RAW files were edited with Lightroom. Camera settings: 14mm, f/2.8, ISO 2500, 32 seconds for each of the photos Equipment used: Nikon D700, Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, Promote Control, Really Right Stuff TVC-34L tripod, BH-40 ballhead, DewNot heat strip, and DewBuster controller.

Milky Way over Mount Kineo

Mount Kineo reflecting in North Bay on Moosehead Lake, Maine, October 9, 2013, 11:30 PM. The two bright stars overhead are Altair and Vega. The orange glow is light pollution. Two exposures were combined for this shot in Photoshop: ISO 2500, 40 seconds, f/2.8 for the sky and ISO 2500, 154 seconds, f/2.8 for the ground with light painting on the rock and beach. Shot with a Nikon D700 camera, 14-24mm f/2.8 lens, Promote Control, and Really Right Stuff TVC-34L tripod, leveling base, & ballhead @ 18mm.

2013-10-10-183742 StarTrails

2013-10-10-183742