JUST PhotographIN'

The night sky is a captivating scene to gaze at.  The millions of stars shining like pin drops in a tapestry entice viewers to imagine what is beyond us.  As a photographer, I can attempt to capture these scenes as they whirl by in cycles of time.

The time factor within photography is aptly controlled by the shutter speed.  How long is light permitted to dance across the sensor to create the image?  For some photos, it may be a fraction of a second which freezes things in place.  For other photos, it may be several seconds or even minutes.

The fascinating thing, to me, about long exposures is how they allow a scene that may be otherwise unnoticed to unfold.  Without them, the start trails around the north start are merely unnoticed.  Life is not frozen in time.  It is constantly moving and bustling about.  Water falls flow; people ride there bikes on trails; a cat jumps into the window-sill; a dog fetches a frisbee in the park.

With a little bit of practice and patients, the long exposure adds this movement into the scene.  I think that is why I am slightly fascinated by this technique of capturing a scene.  I recently practiced capturing the night sky with a series of 2 minute exposures.  I was actually trying to capture what was forecast to be a possible appearance of the Aurora Borealis in northern Colorado.  Although, the aurora did not appear, I managed to compile my first time-lapse as well as composite a few start trail images.

The results turned out okay, and I will definitely be taking my camera out to capture some more night scenes with long exposures!

This is a time-lapse of 99, two minute exposures with a one second interval between exposures.  It has some errors, but it is my first time-lapse.

This photo is a composite of 16, two minute exposures with a one second interval between exposures.