River Trails

mountainjunkie · Mar 7, 2021

Stayed in a cabin in a remote area for a short fishing trip where I knew the skies would be very dark this weekend. The moon phase didn't align well for a milky way attempt so decided to do a star trail shot. Unfortunately I left my 14-24 lens at home which I would usually use for this type of attempt, so I used my 24-70 in portrait orientation (which I rarely think to do for night landscapes) to get an interesting foreground and still capture enough of the stars. This was in the middle of a narrow canyon with tall walls; not exactly the composition I had hoped for but turned out better than expected. I also went with a little lower ISO than previous star trail attempts and that combined with the dark skies made for some really nice color in the trails imo.

Second photo taken the next day in slightly different conditions

Arkansas River Star Trails by matt gates, on Flickr

Arkansas River 5-5 by matt gates, on Flickr

K9Kirk · Mar 8, 2021

Nice set. Shooting at night is fun.

LoveMyDaughter · Mar 18, 2021

Love it!!!

Space Face · Mar 20, 2021

Fishing trip, cool sky. What's not to like?

weepete · Mar 20, 2021

Cool shot, you definately got some nice colour in those star trails. How was the fishing?

mountainjunkie · Mar 28, 2021

weepete said:
Cool shot, you definately got some nice colour in those star trails. How was the fishing?

Thank you. I tried a little lower ISO for more color in the trails which worked out nicely.

Sorry for the late reply, been absent from the forum for a bit! It was a little slow, we're just getting in to prime (pre-runoff) season, so I was a couple weeks early during this trip.

mountainjunkie · Mar 28, 2021

Space Face said:
Fishing trip, cool sky. What's not to like?

Good point, and not much!

weepete · Mar 29, 2021

mountainjunkie said:
Thank you. I tried a little lower ISO for more color in the trails which worked out nicely.

Sorry for the late reply, been absent from the forum for a bit! It was a little slow, we're just getting in to prime (pre-runoff) season, so I was a couple weeks early during this trip.

Cool, I've not been able to get out since December. Our fishing has slowed down right now, February to June is a bit slow where I fish and lockdown's kept me in. Hoping to get out and blow the cobwebs off in April if we can keep cases down.