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Bedded Down under the Stars
Bedded Down under the Stars
hahn23


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Day Taken At Night (Advanced Editing VII)
Camera: Canon EOS-5D
Lens: Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS
Location: Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park, CO
Date: Mar 9, 2011
Aperture: f/4
ISO: 200
Shutter: 1924s
Galleries: Animals, Astrophotography
Date Uploaded: Mar 10, 2011

 On the down sloping southeast slope of Deer Mountain. Herd of elk laying under the Ponderosa pines. Over more than 30 minutes, the elk move their heads quite a lot. I intended it to be a pastoral landscape scene, not a wildlife detail shot. The terrain is level, as determined by the double bubble level on my hot shoe.

Sunset 18:02
Civil Twilight ends 18:29
Nautical Twilight ends 18:59
Astronomical Twilight ends 19:30

Image capture start: 19:41
Image capture end: 20:13
Duration: 1924s (or 32 minutes)

Moon phase: 23% waxing crescent (the only source of light)
Moon alt: 42.8 >>>29.9
Moon azi: 261 >>>271.1

Light winds and 15 degrees F. The light pollution to the NE is coming from Fort Collins, CO.... 50 miles away.

Definitely better at a larger size.

[Mar. 11th, 2011 07:28:39 AM]

Very generous scores early on. Great comments. Thanks!

Just wanted to remark about my surprise to see the image capture showing day-like exposure because it was very dark. My night vision is excellent, but I could not see the elk herd in the low light conditions of the 24% waxing crescent moon. I had to use my headlamp to set the camera and tripod. But, the camera at wide open aperture and ISO 200 with focus manually set to the hyperfocal distance gave me a deep DOF plane from 20 feet to infinity. The cumulative available light capture produced an acceptable image and a pleasant star trail in the sky. While I'd like to think this was some skill, it was mostly a lucky shot in the dark.

Just to the right of Polaris is a meteor streak. In the lower sky, just above Deer Ridge, are about three airplane streaks.

[Mar. 12th, 2011 05:48:38 AM]

Definitely no "contrails" in this image. The plane light trails and the meteor streak are from emitted light. No "contrails". There were more general clouds over Fort Collins on the right side of the sky. Contributed to the reflection of the light pollution.

11 votes below "5". No comments from those good people.

We are looking at the sloping flank of a mountainside. The ridge saddle is the horizon. Nothing flat about any of this, but it is square and level with the world.

Statistics
Place: 4 out of 39
Avg (all users): 6.8931
Avg (commenters): 8.7143
Avg (participants): 6.7143
Avg (non-participants): 6.9203
Views since voting: 3480
Views during voting: 584
Votes: 159
Comments: 29
Favorites: 1 (view)

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AuthorThread
 03/19/2011 07:39:41 PM
Congrats on the high finish. Well deserved, my friend.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/19/2011 07:00:42 PM
Nice Job!!!! Congrats!!!!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/18/2011 06:40:36 PM
Nice photo. I don't have the skill or patience to pull something like this off.

I just got a new tripod with a level and was wondering about your comment:

The terrain is level, as determined by the double bubble level on my hot shoe.


It looks like the horizon and foreground are slanting from left to right. With that in mind, wouldn't the double bubble level be showing that it is your camera that is level and not the terrain?

Thanks
 03/18/2011 05:05:22 PM
Congrats on a nice finish, Richard!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/18/2011 01:52:00 PM
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
....
I was at ISO 400 to your 200, and f/5.6 to your f/4.0 — so those cancel each other out. You gave approximately 3 stops more exposure than I did. I was shooting an hour and a half after sunset, and closer to civilization than you, so I expect that gives me a somewhat higher level of ambient light, perhaps a stop's worth. My image was (deliberately) underexposed by a couple stops so as not to blow out the stars, and then brightened in post, so that accounts for the rest of the difference. Here's the resized-but-unaltered RAW:



How does that compare to your unprocessed RAW?


My resized-but-unaltered RAW: I agree with your comparison analysis.
 03/18/2011 01:25:43 PM
Originally posted by hahn23:
Originally posted by LevT:
excellent shot, and the "surprize" herd of elk is just an icing on the cake. congratulations!

(it must have been pretty dark there for such a long exposure at f/4. compare that with 180s in Robert's shot with f/5.6... and also moonlit, presumably by the same moon :)... do you understand it?)

No, not entirely! I was shooting after the end of astronomical twilight. It was very dark. Maybe Robert had some twilight left.... or light pollution from civilization on the East coast. The ONLY source of my light was the waxing crescent 24% moon. Had I used 180s, I would have had very little exposure. Mystery to me! I could not see the light pollution from Fort Collins, but it registered on the sensor.


I was at ISO 400 to your 200, and f/5.6 to your f/4.0 — so those cancel each other out. You gave approximately 3 stops more exposure than I did. I was shooting an hour and a half after sunset, and closer to civilization than you, so I expect that gives me a somewhat higher level of ambient light, perhaps a stop's worth. My image was (deliberately) underexposed by a couple stops so as not to blow out the stars, and then brightened in post, so that accounts for the rest of the difference. Here's the resized-but-unaltered RAW:



How does that compare to your unprocessed RAW?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/18/2011 12:56:25 PM
Richard, "luck" is just another word for opportunity + skill :-)

Gorgeous image.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/18/2011 11:35:49 AM
Very well done Richard. Can't for the life of me figure out how you could get anything less than a 6 on this. I think it's due to maybe voters think this technique is supposed to be easy or something. Anyway, congrats on an outstanding image, I knew this was yours the second I saw it! Outstanding effort with going out in the middle of the night to do this.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/18/2011 01:39:29 AM
Originally posted by LevT:
excellent shot, and the "surprize" herd of elk is just an icing on the cake. congratulations!

(it must have been pretty dark there for such a long exposure at f/4. compare that with 180s in Robert's shot with f/5.6... and also moonlit, presumably by the same moon :)... do you understand it?)

No, not entirely! I was shooting after the end of astronomical twilight. It was very dark. Maybe Robert had some twilight left.... or light pollution from civilization on the East coast. The ONLY source of my light was the waxing crescent 24% moon. Had I used 180s, I would have had very little exposure. Mystery to me! I could not see the light pollution from Fort Collins, but it registered on the sensor.
 03/18/2011 01:27:10 AM
excellent shot, and the "surprize" herd of elk is just an icing on the cake. congratulations!

(it must have been pretty dark there for such a long exposure at f/4. compare that with 180s in Robert's shot with f/5.6... and also moonlit, presumably by the same moon :)... do you understand it?)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/18/2011 12:09:37 AM
You were right, but I should have been. Congrats on a stunning image.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/18/2011 12:08:34 AM
I had a feeling this shot was yours... Really a wonderful image. Congrats on the top 5! oh and thanks for posting all the info on your shot, helps us noobs try to figure this night gig out...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/18/2011 12:07:09 AM
I see you got your 4th, Richard! Congrats!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
03/17/2011 06:59:00 AM
good job.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/16/2011 04:53:28 PM
This is Sweet! What are those little lines at the bottom right of the horizon and where was this taken? Good Job!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/16/2011 02:32:48 PM
Cracking star trails. 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/15/2011 10:42:27 PM
Fairly incredible. Something about it makes me want to shake it left, but then we'd have even more star trails. Fantastic capture. Exposure is true to day, yet those stars... awesome. And a herd of deer? Elk? Wow. An unexpected benefit of this theme. Excellent.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/15/2011 11:02:37 AM
must have been some planes flying by they make interesting patterns...great job on the stars
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/14/2011 09:24:17 PM
Fantastic 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/12/2011 09:34:03 AM
I love your camera position which shows the long exposure so well.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/12/2011 07:16:16 AM
Fantastic shot! Love the depth and the color.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/12/2011 03:39:35 AM
A fascinating scene highlighting the beauty of nature. Multiple contrails denote the presence of man. As a critique, I think you could have leveraged the location of Polaris in avoiding a pseudo-centered composition. 7
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/11/2011 07:37:38 PM
Very impressive -- my favorite of the bunch! This really does a great job of doing what the challenge suggested -- looking like daylight while keeping elements of night. I expect to see a ribbon on this one.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/11/2011 05:34:31 PM
Well done!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/11/2011 09:16:54 AM
Beautiful Star trail. Colors are vibrant. Great detail for what must have been a dark location.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/11/2011 08:05:19 AM
I would love to see a more interesting foreground but the exposure is nice and I really love the star trails and how the curvature matches nicely with the tree line. Well done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/11/2011 07:26:02 AM
Wonderfully done!! My favorite of the challenge no doubt. To have amazing star trails plus wildlife so clear is simply breathtaking.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/11/2011 03:29:04 AM
Has to do well
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/11/2011 12:34:31 AM
Striking image, love the little tilt to the camera as well... 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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