The Lonely Planet

Alistair Wilson

The Lonely Planet

My first real attempt at some star trails, I thought the South Celestial Pole would be a bit further up in the image but it ended up being just out but I think I still like this one. This tree is the same tree in my image Speed of Light. This technique will definitely require some more practice, the tree is lit from car headlights coming off Lysterfield Road in the distance. Borrowed mum’s new/old Canon 5D for this one with a 24-70mm f2.8 L series attached.


Settings
  1. Canon 5D, 24-70mm f2.8 L USM. FL: 54 mm
  2. 30 seconds @ f2.8×50 shots, ISO 800
  3. No Filters
  4. Adobe Lightroom 2, Startrails software & Adobe Photoshop CS4

The Lonely Planet belongs to the following groups:

# 1 ARTISTS OF REDBUBBLE , ! 100% !, After Dark, All That is Nature (Photography Only), Artistic Motion Blur, Canon DSLR (One Image Per Day & A Canon Camera Must Be In The Description Before It's Accepted), DSLR Users Only - 1/24 - Camera & Lens In Description Please., First Things, Landscape and Abstract Photography, Light and Reflection 1/24, Light Trails, Live, Love, Dream: , Nature's Wonders, Night Photography, Scenery, Skyscapes, Technical Photography, The Addicted Photographerâ–º2 Per Dayâ—„, The Ashes - Australia vs England - 2 per day, The true beauty, Timelapse/Long Exposure Photography, Trees - 2 images per day with trees as the focal point and UK to Australia and Back Available for sale as

Greeting Cards, Matted Prints, Laminated Prints, Mounted Prints, Canvas Prints, Framed Prints and Posters
The Lonely Planet by Alistair Wilson
The Lonely Planet by Alistair Wilson
  • Elucidate

    Elucidate

    Very well done! I love the star trails.

  • Alistair Wilson replied

    Thanks, they definitely look pretty cool!

  • Sarah Lipow

    Sarah Lipow

    This ROCKS:)

  • Alistair Wilson replied

    Thanks Sarah, appreciate it :)

  • igotmeacanon

    igotmeacanon

    bloody nice shot mate or shots

  • Alistair Wilson replied

    Thanks mate, was out there for a while! ended up taking 135 but just used 50 otherwise it was a bit overdone

  • kathy s gillentine

    kathy s gillen...

    Fantastic capture

  • Alistair Wilson replied

    Thankyou Kathy

  • Mindy McGregor

    Mindy McGregor

    Great work!

  • Alistair Wilson replied

    Thanks Mindy :)

  • Richard George

    Richard George

    Wish all my first attempts worked as well as this. Nice one Alistair.

  • Alistair Wilson replied

    Thanks Richard!

  • Craig Hender

    Craig Hender

    Nice one mate! Very well done.

  • Alistair Wilson replied

    Cheers Craig

  • Jared Revell

    Jared Revell

    It’s come out great Alistair, perfect use of the tree !
    I wrote a blog about star trails using the southern celestial pole (and how to locate it)
    It may help you identify the pole location, blog post link here

  • Alistair Wilson replied

    Cheers mate, will have a look next time!

  • Nori Bucci

    Nori Bucci

    Oooooh…this is awesome Alistair!!!!

  • Alistair Wilson replied

    Thanks Nori

  • Wayne England

    Wayne England

    Great pic Alistair. Just wondering how you knew to take multiple shots and not one long exposure which presumably would have caused a purplish ghosting around the edges (a trait of the sensor). Did you try that first and discover it or did someone tell you about it? I tried long exposures on digital after using film and wondered what I was doing wrong! Thank god for google!
    I’d recommend posting it in the Astronomy group too if you haven’t already. They would love it. Great shot!

  • Alistair Wilson replied

    Hi mate, google for sure, used this program called startrails i always research something for a little bit before trying it out! or try too anyway

  • Wayne England

    Wayne England

    Yes good idea. I also use the trial and error way as well! I’ve used Startrails too and it’s a great program…. and free!

  • Alistair Wilson replied

    Yeah pretty awesome program considering the $0 price tag! I actually took like 135 shots but because I was zoomed in a fair bit e.g.54mm FL it was a bit too much with that many in one shot. so i did one with 50 shots and it looked better. The 135 shot one might have looked a bit better if it was at say 12 mm or something instead. But I was cold and the camera kept fogging up so I headed back home

  • Wayne England

    Wayne England

    Yes you can get to a point when the start trails start to overlap and merge a little too much (stars with the same angular distance from the south celestial pole), although it does create an interesting effect. As an amateur astronomer I’m more used to the conditions out in the field we get at times plus the contortions the body needs to get into to line up and look through telescopes, let alone cameras, so I can sympathise there!

  • Alistair Wilson replied

    Thanks mate, sounds like you know a bit more about it than I do!

  • Birgitta

    Birgitta

    Wow….wow….

    and wow.

  • Alistair Wilson replied

    Thanks :)

  • funkybunch

    funkybunch

    very nice

  • Alistair Wilson replied

    Thankyou

  • Wayne England

    Wayne England

    Haha, I doubt that mate looking at some of your photos!

  • morningbri

    morningbri

    that is so incredible,
    great shot!

  • Alistair Wilson replied

    Thanks :):)

  • Vicki Ferrari

    Vicki Ferrari

    Great capture Alistair! Magic! I love the way the headlights have lit the tree! Almost spooky!

  • Alistair Wilson replied

    Thanks Vicki

  • simonesphotos

    simonesphotos

    Nice one mate, love the illumination on the tree!

  • Alistair Wilson replied

    Thankyou Simone

  • Steve Chapple

    Steve Chapple

    Wow, mind blowing finish. The power of this pops out at me.

  • Alistair Wilson replied

    Thanks Steve, appreciate it mate!

  • tasadam

    tasadam

    Hi Alistair.
    You say 30 seconds in the description. Do you mean 30 minutes?
    It’s a great capture. I’ve seen a similar image before somewhere… You’ve made use of the rotation of the earth very well in this image.
    Well done! I bet you’re hooked on the star trails thing now eh?

  • Alistair Wilson replied

    hi mate, 30 seconds for each shot x 50 shots then merged in software

  • tasadam

    tasadam

    I see… I didn’t get beyond the 30 seconds comment.
    I bet that computer did some churning and crunching for a while processing 50 images together!
    Great result.

  • Alistair Wilson replied

    Thanks mate, it handled it pretty well :) I’ve got a pretty beefy laptop seems to do pretty well with photos considering what I throw at it. I can’t say a bad thing about Asus :)

  • Scott d'Almeida

    Scott d'Almeida

    fantastic

  • Alistair Wilson replied

    Thanks Scott

  • Scott d'Almeida

    Scott d'Almeida

    cheers

  • heeb

    heeb

    Absolutely beautiful! Great star trails! And the tree has character! Thank you for sharing!

  • Melissa Carroll

    Melissa Carroll

    even after reading your description i have no idea how you did this.
    its amazing.

Add your comment

You need to login or signup to add your comment to this work.