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Raven's Roost
1st PlaceRaven's Roost
vawendy


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Landscape At Night (Advanced Editing VII)
Collection: 2012 Challenge shots
Camera: Canon EOS-7D
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM
Date: Jan 17, 2012
Aperture: 3.5
ISO: 1600
Shutter: 24 sec
Date Uploaded: Jan 17, 2012
[Jan. 24th, 2012 07:48:10 PM]

This was our grand, and somewhat weird, adventure last weekend.

My son had a great time last year attempting star trails. So when this challenge was announced, I thought it would be fun for the family to head out to the hills and see if we could get star trails over the Appalachian mountains. The grand plan was to spend the night and wander the trails the next day.

Didn't work out on Saturday night for many reasons. So even though we couldn't wander the mountains on Monday, we left Sunday afternoon around 4 for the 2.5 hour drive to the mountains. It was a low of around 10 degrees, so it was cold, but not too bad. We stayed at one spot for about an hour or so for my son and daughter to shoot for awhile. This is where I found out that you have to be down below and closeup to include mountains in a star shot. Since you're using a wide angle lens, mountains across the valley don't look like mountains. They don't even look like hills!!



Then moved over to raven's roost so I could shoot for about an hour.

I tried non-moving stars and star trails. Here's the star trail entry I was considering:



My daughter was done and getting cold, so she stayed in the car, joined shortly by my son. My valiant husband kept me company!

The hardest thing about night photography (for me, at least) is seeing through the view finder and focusing! I couldn't tell what I was seeing -- it was too dark! I had to lay the camera and the ground and prop up the front and hope.

The experience was fun, the aftermath wasn't that exciting. My daughter ended up with a mild case of hypothermia and it took a couple of hours in the motel to start feeling decent again -- just in time to sleep. The next morning we were going to drive up skyline drive and see if there were any deer in the meadow. The road was supposed to open at 8am. It didn't open. We sat around with other cars for about a 1/2 hour. Turns out the road was closed for ice, but they didn't bother posting it. We headed back home with kind of an anti-climatic feeling.

Fun adventure for a couple of hours. Strange adventure for more hours. :)

I'm amazed at how well this is doing, but my hopes aren't all that high, because I think this will be an extremely high scoring challenge -- there are some wonderful shots in there!!

Thanks for all the wonderful comments!

Statistics
Place: 1 out of 77
Avg (all users): 7.4780
Avg (commenters): 8.3500
Avg (participants): 7.1220
Avg (non-participants): 7.5671
Views since voting: 5079
Views during voting: 459
Votes: 205
Comments: 50
Favorites: 9 (view)

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AuthorThread
 02/01/2012 02:17:57 PM
Congrats on continuing to update your top row. That's hard to do when you score as high as you do! This shot is my incentive for getting a new monitor because mine is apparently way too bright (I see a ton of chromic noise but it looks awesome on my phone!) I'd tell you to keep up the good work but you do that naturally!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/26/2012 10:04:54 PM
Wow Wow WOW!!! OutSTANDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/26/2012 01:09:54 PM
congratulations Wendy, very nice photo!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/26/2012 12:46:58 PM
Congrats on the blue Wendy. Well done!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 10:32:28 PM
Congratulations, I am glad that after your chilly adventure you get some well deserved recognition on a great photo!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 09:56:42 PM
Thumbs up from this astrophotographer. I simply couldn't take the time to drive to the Appalachians for a photo contest.. although I sure would like to! I shall live vicariously through you.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 09:05:35 PM
Beautiful. Congrats Wendy.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 08:17:35 PM
You may not have found everything you were seeking on that trip but boy did you catch a gem here. This is gorgeous! Congrats on the blue!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 01:24:58 PM
congratulations! beautiful capture!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 11:06:11 AM
Amazing image and perfect placement in the Challenge.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 10:56:56 AM
Congrats Wendy! Great effort that paid off for you.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 09:13:04 AM
Wonderful image congrats on the blue!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 08:26:15 AM
Great shot of beautiful scene. Congrats on the blue.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 06:24:21 AM
i had this as my second choice behind hhn23 shot, i disliked the noise in the sky, why did you shoot at 1600 iso?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 05:50:52 AM
Congratulations this was my top pick,love it.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 03:46:39 AM
Congratulations, great shot !
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 03:12:56 AM
I think only Steve might be surprised about this :-p

Great result! Congratulations on the blue and great score!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 02:59:38 AM
Congrats Wendy! Lots of effort - glad it paid off!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 02:16:18 AM
Congrats Wendy! Very nice image.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 02:08:20 AM
Knew this would do well, WTG Wendy.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 01:31:53 AM
Woah! Great score Wendy!
Congrats on the well deserved blue. this was one of my top scorers, i knew this would do really well.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 12:25:56 AM
WENDY!! You GO, girl!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 12:23:21 AM
Congrats on the blue!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 12:10:17 AM
Congratulations on your blue ribbon, vawendy. Wonderful image worthy of the recognition. Way to go!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 12:06:34 AM
Congratulations, Wendy. Amazing image!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 12:06:24 AM
Oh well I must've been wrong about the sharpening, well done Wendy.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 12:06:14 AM
Told ya! Fantastic! Enjoy the accolades, Ms Landscape Photographer!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 12:05:44 AM
I have not looked at your profile in quite some time. Nice ribbon collection and nice addition with this one.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2012 12:03:42 AM
Congratulations! What a fantastic shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
01/24/2012 09:05:23 PM
The tree looks oversharpened IMHO. Would of loved a softer look. Other than that pretty scene.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/24/2012 06:38:22 PM
Nice starlight image; the white edge on the borders is a little distracting, but a lovely shot nonetheless. (voted earlier)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/24/2012 06:36:17 PM
This is awesome! Impressive that you were able to get so many stars, especially considering the city lights below the horizon. Well done! (voted earlier)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/24/2012 08:38:59 AM
Excellent silhouetting. and the border adds to the holloywood-esque feel of the shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/24/2012 04:53:42 AM
Lovely!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/24/2012 02:06:25 AM
So many stars! I love it.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2012 08:22:34 PM
Top 3, amazing
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2012 04:15:17 PM
Great picture, this should be a top 5!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/20/2012 03:29:14 PM
Wonderful!!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/20/2012 09:55:58 AM
This is very nicely done. Great exposure time.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/19/2012 07:50:26 PM
Excellent job.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/19/2012 12:03:43 AM
Like the atmosphere ..great job
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/18/2012 04:37:48 PM
Really gorgeous... nicely captured. Hi marks for you! 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/18/2012 04:12:54 PM
Nice and simple, good image
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/18/2012 02:06:21 PM
Great composition and subject.

Two possible improvements in my eyes:
Venus (I assume) could have been composed to the right of the tree, and might have come out stronger (maybe!).

Some de-noise in the sky could be good too. Stars are hard because you want them to expose, but you don't want noise. I struggle with this a lot myself. The most amazing sky images have stars that pop from a smooth background.

Don't get me wrong, I hope this ribbons!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/18/2012 11:43:42 AM
On first view this is my tip for the top,love it.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/18/2012 09:41:27 AM
I like this a lot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/18/2012 08:54:12 AM
I love the photo. But dread those borders!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/18/2012 01:42:25 AM
Awesome! I love the yellowish skyline on the left. Cool looking sky as well.
I would have moved (cropped) the tree more to the left. IMHO :) 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/18/2012 01:14:55 AM
What a beauty!!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/18/2012 12:53:35 AM
The tree is such a strong focal point, I think you should have cropped out the city lights on the right. However, your photo is worthy of a good vote. Bump up to 8.
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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