Navajo Land under the stars,

[JDGagne]

After a great day shooting in the wonderful light of Arizona:), see previous post, I finished the day by making several attempts(ISO & speed) to catch the valley under the stars. It was pitch dark, so manual operation were required. I tried using as much speed as possible to get a starry sky without too much trails to make it different. I visualized this shot a long time prior to my trip.

Here one of the takes using ISO 800 during 44 seconds @f/4:

East Mitten, Merrick & Elephant buttes in "Navajo land under the stars"
http://www.bytephoto.com/photopost/data/913/3006Navajo_Land_under_the_stars.jpg
http://www.bytephoto.com/photopost/data/503/3006Navajo_Land_under_the_stars.jpg


what do you think?

Jean-Daniel (JD)

[Bruce Murden]

A lovely night image! I like your exposure to get star detail without trails.

Now if you could only have had someone light paint the monuments for you to bring up some detail :)

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey JD,
not bad on the star movement. I find that 30 seconds is max for not getting movement. I actually like the dark look in this one. appears you had just a hint of light illuminating the FG and there is enough detail there for me to recognize all the mittens. I may have taken a bit off the RH side but do realize how difficult composing at night is.....so I'd take it. Nicely done!