[ksten]

Evening all,

My take on the theme was to make use of time lapse photography with long exposures to capture the motion of the Earth's rotation as shown by star trails. So earlier this evening I spent a rather nervous 90 minutes in the graveyard of a small church in Dogmersfield.

I made four 30 second exposures and used a torch to paint light onto parts of the church tower. I then made 141 further exposures to capture the star trails. I processed these in Lightroom and using an application called "Startrails" - which automatically overlays the photographs using the equivalent of Photoshops "Lighten" blending mode (to save me doing this manually). Finally the merged photograph was taken into photoshop for curves and sharpening.

Time and Motion

Exif information of the base photograph can be found in the "more properties" page on Flickr.

Cheers.

[Biscuit761]

Wow !!!

Bill

[bowenjones]

That is simply a fantastic photo Keith

[electrolyte]

I agree, wow! Really like this one.

[Tobers]

Very good indeed.

All you need is a clock on the spire and you're laughing.

[bodoman]

Whoa, i feel giddy

Excellent photo and i admire the amount of time and effort put in to create it

[andy_fozzy]

Oh that is STUNNING!
Even captured a few aircraft in it!!

Well done, I'd love to be able to do this.
One day maybe......

[sbowler]

Excellent shot. A lot of time and effort put in there, great thinking. Looks a winner to me.

[booyaka]

amazing photo - very impressive. Stunning.

only downside is my photo taken last night which i need to still play about with seems very average now

[richard plumb]

fab photo. If i'm being amazingly picky, it would have been nice to have the rotation around the tip of the tower - its just a tiny bit off.

[rizingstar]

Got to admire the patience of 90 minutes sitting taken shots at blackness worth it in the end tho, nice one.

[The Android]

Well that's my idea taken.....damn

Very nice shot.

I like the idea of adding a bit of light painting too...well done

How did you get the stars to appear in such a tight orbit, do you live at the north pole, lol.

Seriously though, I am interested as to the tight orbits, is this the result of the merging software.

I was going to do a similar shot (weather permitting), but was going to just go for 1 long exposure. Still might do it, although I'll get quite a bit of noise doing it my way.

[ksten]

Thanks for your comments everyone.

Originally Posted by Tobers

All you need is a clock on the spire and you're laughing.

Haha, that was originally the idea - I was hoping to get the rotation of the stars centered around the clock face. I visited churches in Crondall and Odiham that did have clocks on the towers but unfortunately they were facing the wrong direction to get the north star in position. They were also quite brightly lit up so I wasn't sure how well i would be able to capture the stars at those locations. In the end I found this church in Dogmersfield which was very dark but unfortunately no clock! I had considered cloning one in from a photograph of one of the other churches, but I decided that as it was for a competition that might be pushing it a bit far.

Originally Posted by The Android

Well that's my idea taken.....damn

How did you get the stars to appear in such a tight orbit, do you live at the north pole, lol.

Seriously though, I am interested as to the tight orbits, is this the result of the merging software.

I was going to do a similar shot (weather permitting), but was going to just go for 1 long exposure. Still might do it, although I'll get quite a bit of noise doing it my way.

I don't think there is anything wrong with submitting your idea too - I don't think there is anything in the rules about it anyway? I'd certainly be interested to see what you had in mind.

The star trails all rotate about the north star in this hemishpere. Therefore stars that are closer in the sky to this star will form tighter trails than stars further across the sky. I just positioned the north star behind the tower knowing that all the other stars would be spinning around it.

Google "finding polaris" for an easy way to find the north star.

Thanks again everyone.

Cheers.

[The Android]

Cheers for the info

[Bushido]

Truly great picture!

[Alun]

That is an awesome shot, Keith.
Astounding amount of effort there

[jonnypb]

fantastic pic, has to be in with a chance of winning

[Beachball]

Excellent shot. A strong contender IMO.

[Tobers]

Originally Posted by ksten

I had considered cloning one in from a photograph of one of the other churches, but I decided that as it was for a competition that might be pushing it a bit far.

I'd have cloned a clock in - nobody would know

[iandrews]

As others have said - Wow. A good thought out photo, and very well executed, very worth the time and effort put in.

Ian.

[Liquid101]

Nice entry!

Love the composition, and the choice of 'foreground'

[netronelson]

If this doesn't win, i'll eat my hat.

and i'd have to go out and buy a hat first too!