Category Archives: Photography

Hiking in Crystal Cove State Park and camping at Lower Moro Campground

California, Orange County, Photography, Reviews

My overnight backpacking trip to Crystal Cove State Park this past August was a bonanza of photographic opportunity. I loved the dew-covered flowers, saw two rattlesnakes mating, got a night self portrait, saw a bunch of insects and spiders, and got some fun atmospheric shots of foggy trails and spiderwebs. If you want to see my pretty pictures from the trip, follow those links.

But, in looking at the traffic coming to my blog, a lot of folks are searching for information on camping at Crystal Cove State Park. So, as a final Crystal Cove wrap-up post I’ll share some pictures of the trail and our campsite.

My REI Quarterdome T2 tent set up with rainfly at Crystal Cove State Park's Lower Moro campground. A picnic table is visible in the background. (Marc C. Perkins)
My REI Quarterdome T2 tent set up with rainfly at Crystal Cove State Park's Lower Moro campground.

While I loved my short trip to Crystal Cove’s inland campground, there are a couple of things you need to keep in mind:

  1. There is no water available in the park except at the parking lot. So, you’ll need to carry in enough water to last for your entire trip.
  2. The campgrounds are a couple of miles away from the parking lot, and there’s a few hundred feet elevation gain, so you’ll need to be backpacking and give yourself enough time to get there before sunset.
  3. There are rattlesnakes.  There will soon be baby rattlesnakes.
  4. The park is centrally located in Orange County, and may get crowded during peak periods. While we were the only people at the entire campground when we went, friends have reported finding the Lower Moro campground entirely full, and having to hike on to the campgrounds further inland. You’ll also be sharing the trail with day hikers and mountain bikers, so don’t expect a lonely wilderness hike.

You’ll start out your trip at the new Crystal Cove State Park day use area, which comes complete with lots of parking, bathrooms, water fountains, a path to the ocean, and numerous picnic tables.

Crystal Cove State Park opened a new day use area in the summer of 2011. This photograph shows the row of picnic tables that is adjacent to the parking lot. There is a path that leads to the ocean, and also a path connecting the day use area to the trails leading into Crystal Cove State Park's inland wilderness. (Marc C. Perkins)
The new day use area at Crystal Cove State Park.

The trail leaves from the end of the parking lot, and after climbing all the way to the top of the coastal hills, you can look back on Crystal Cove State Park:

Continue reading Hiking in Crystal Cove State Park and camping at Lower Moro Campground →

Fog and dew at Crystal Cove State Park: Atmospheric shots

California, Orange County, Photography

I fell asleep and awoke to fog while camping in Crystal Cove State Park a few weeks ago. The flowers became beautifully covered in dew, so I spent most of my free time photographing them.

But what struck me as I was doing my closeup work was how much the fog changed the feel of the park. When the fog rolled in a few hours before sunset, the landscape changed from a dusty, hot California hillside covered in dry grass to something moodier, almost creepy.

A trail winds off in the distance behind scraggly foliage into a fog shrouded unknown up a hill. Taken in Crystal Cove State Park on a foggy afternoon, just before sunset. I love the creepy feel of this. (Marc C. Perkins)
A trail winds off in the distance behind scraggly foliage into a fog shrouded unknown at Crystal Cove State Park.

As the wisps of fog blew by, trails that used to be perfectly visible became shrouded in mist. The plants transformed from water-starved sticks to haunting menaces, stalking trails that led into nothing by grayness.

Mist on a foggy morning shrouds the trail as it passes through bushes in Crystal Cove State Park. (Marc C. Perkins)
Mist on a foggy morning shrouds the trail as it passes through bushes in Crystal Cove State Park.

And the spiderwebs seemed perfect for Halloween, the little droplets of water sometimes looking like a thousand little eyes peering out at you.

This spider web was covered in dew on a foggy morning at Crystal Cove State Park. It looks creepy to me, especially since the droplets look like they have little eyes in them. (Marc C. Perkins)
The droplets of water on this spiderweb are especially creepy to me, as they almost look like they have eyes in them.
A spider web covered in varying sizes of dew droplets. (Marc C. Perkins)
A spider web covered in varying sizes of dew droplets.
A spider web covered in dew on a foggy morning at Crystal Cove. This web has a cool shape: it's like a bowl on the bottom, with support strands running vertically. (Marc C. Perkins)
A spider web covered in dew on a foggy morning at Crystal Cove.

Photographers: How do you work in fog to capture the feel of it, without just ending up with pictures that look under-contrasty and bland?

Hopefully these images will please Greg, as he’s ribbed me about my lack of grayscale work.

More pictures

To see more pictures from the trip, head to my Crystal Cove State Park Wilderness Gallery or view my flowers, insects and spiders, self-portrait, and rattlesnake mating blog posts from the trip.

Getting There

Crystal Cove State Park: Located along Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1) between Corona Del Mar and Laguna Beach in Orange County, California. I camped at the Lower Moro Campsite, which is about a 2 mile hike in from the parking lot. Parking is plentiful at a new parking lot and picnic area past the Moro Campground (for RV’s), but you must pay either a day use fee for the state park or an overnight fee. The park is currently open from 6am – sunset; their website has lots of good information on it.

The insects and spiders of Crystal Cove State Park: bees, butterflies, and more!

Biology, California, Orange County, Photography

I’ve already posted a few pictures from my recent backpacking trip to Crystal Cove State Park (flowers, self-portrait, rattlesnake mating). But as I was photographing dew-covered flowers on the foggy morning, I couldn’t help but notice the spiders in their spiderwebs.

This orb weaving spider is standing so that it appears to have only four legs. Its cephalothorax is also covered in fine white hairs. Seen on a beautifully foggy morning in Crystal Cove State Park, there are a few drops of dew on the spider itself and its web is covered in drops. My best guess is that this is in genus _Argiope_. I have a shot of this with better depth of field (all of the web's water droplets are in focus), if you would prefer that (but the background becomes distracting). (Marc C. Perkins)
An orb weaving spider in a dew covered web standing so that it appears to have only four legs. My best guess is that this is in genus _Argiope_.

I had to get up closer, of course:

This orb weaving spider is standing so that it appears to have only four legs. Is it trying to pretend to be a vertebrate? Its cephalothorax is also covered in fine white hairs. Seen on a beautifully foggy morning in Crystal Cove State Park, there are a few drops of dew on the spider itself. My best guess is that this is in genus _Argiope_. (Marc C. Perkins)
Up close and personal, this spider (probably in _Argiope_) is just gorgeous on a foggy morning.

And, you know me, I’m not satisfied unless the subject is spilling out of the frame, but I’ll spare you from a third picture of the same spider in the same post.

Since I know spiders are everyone’s favorite critter, here’s another one I saw that morning:

A brown and tan orb weaver spider stands on its dew covered web in front of an orange background. (Marc C. Perkins)
A brown and tan orb weaver spider stands on its dew covered web in front of an orange background.

But I saw more than just spiders that morning. After the fog burned off, the day warmed up and a ton of insects came out to go about their business. Chief among them were dozens of bees buzzing around this plant:

A honeybee (_Apis mellifera_) forager samples the wares at an all-you-can-eat buffet of white and purple/yellow spike-inflorescence flowers in Crystal Cove State Park. (Marc C. Perkins)
A honeybee (_Apis mellifera_) forager samples the wares at an all-you-can-eat buffet of white and purple/yellow spike-inflorescence flowers in Crystal Cove State Park.

While most of the spider and flower shots I’ve already posted used my new macro lens on a tripod, the rest of theses shots tested out how the lens performed hand-held with fast-moving subjects. It worked very well, auto-focusing quickly and allowing me to get decent depth of field with shutter speeds fast enough to freeze motion:

A honeybee (_Apis mellifera_) forager sticks her antennae and forelegs into a small purple and white flower at Crystal Cove State Park. The bee's pollen basket (corbicula) on her hind legs are stuffed full with tan pollen. (Marc C. Perkins)
A honeybee (_Apis mellifera_) forager sticks her antennae and forelegs into a small purple and white flower at Crystal Cove State Park. The bee's pollen basket (corbicula) on her hind legs is stuffed full with tan pollen.

Of course there were more than just bees and spiders out. My hiking partners spotted this cabbage butterfly flitting around on the trail, and the macro exceeded my expectations by allowing me to capture this image in the few seconds I had before the butterfly flitted away 1:

Continue reading The insects and spiders of Crystal Cove State Park: bees, butterflies, and more! →

Location alert: Flowering agaves at Little Corona Beach

Beach, Biology, California, Orange County, Photography

This past Monday I found myself in possession of a rare bit of spare time around sunset, so I zipped down to Little Corona Beach, which is just off Pacific Coast Highway in Corona Del Mar. My primary purpose for the trip was to try out my new three-stop neutral density filter, but I found a nice surprise at the entrance to the beach:

Two flowering agaves on the bluffs at Little Corona Beach, seen just before sunset. I love the combination of classic California coastal bluffs in the background and the inflorescences in the foreground. However, I don't like the sign in the foreground ... (Marc C. Perkins)
Two flowering agaves on the bluffs at Little Corona Beach, seen just before sunset. I love the combination of classic California coastal bluffs in the background and the inflorescences in the foreground.

The agaves were absolutely gorgeous, especially since their quickly-growing inflorescences could be composed with classic California ocean scenes in the background.

Two flowering agaves on the bluffs at Little Corona Beach, seen just before sunset. I love the combination of classic California coastal bluffs in the background and the inflorescences in the foreground. (Marc C. Perkins)
Two flowering agaves on the bluffs at Little Corona Beach, seen just before sunset.

These inflorescences won’t be around forever. Just like the Agave I photographed earlier this year (gallery 1, gallery 2), the inflorescence will grow to a certain height, burst into flower, and then die (and then likely get ripped out by the landscapers, which is what happened to the one at OCC). Also, agaves typically flower only once during their entire lives.

So, local photographers, this is your only chance to capture these agaves at their peak. I’m no botanist, but my guess is that they’ll quickly grow too tall for their tips to be included in a sea-scape composition without a ladder. I don’t know how long it will be until they flower, either, but my guess is we’ve got a few weeks (as I didn’t see any flower buds present yet).

If you do go and photograph them, I’ve got only two requests:

  1. Respect the fence that protects the agaves and their surrounding vegetation. The bluffs are very delicate, and local groups have been working very hard to re-vegetate the area.
  2. If you do get some good shots, I’d love it if you could share them with everyone by posting a comment here linking to them.

Continue reading Location alert: Flowering agaves at Little Corona Beach →

Rattlesnake mating: frantic sensuality in the grass

Biology, California, Orange County, Photography

[Update February 28, 2012: Thanks to a most-excellent comment by Bryan Hughes, I now know that this is a post about aggression between two male rattlesnakes, not a male and female snake mating.]

A few weeks ago some friends and I camped overnight in Crystal Cove’s Lower Moro Campground. The morning was beautifully foggy, and I took a bunch of flower closeups while the dew was still around. But the sun eventually burned through the fog, and we packed up and headed for home.

As I was hiking I heard some rustling in the grass next to me beside the trail. Accustomed to hunting for lizards, I turned and looked to see what it was. Lizard? Bird? Rodent?

Rattlesnake.

No, wait.

Two rattlesnakes.

About that time my legs decided that they really didn’t like being about two feet from two writhing rattlesnakes, so my hiking partners and I quickly moved away. But luckily for us, the snakes were in the throes of passion, and didn’t seem to notice us at all. So, I pulled out my camera and started snapping.

My favorite shot of the bunch is this one:

I'm pretty sure these are two southern pacific rattlesnakes (_Crotalus oreganus_ helleri) mating. I first noticed the pair when I was only a foot or two away from them on a trail; after moving a bit away I captured this shot of the two snakes wrapped around each other. Sadly, I think my presence may have interrupted them. (Marc C. Perkins)
Two southern pacific rattlesnakes (_Crotalus oreganus_ helleri) mating. Click on the image to see it larger.

There the two have just picked themselves up after reaching up vertically and coiling around each other so much that they fell over. To see the entire sequence of them coiling, here’s a five-image composite:

A five image sequence of two southern pacific rattlesnakes (_Crotalus oreganus_ helleri) mating. I first noticed the pair when I was only a foot or two away from them on a trail; after moving a bit away I captured these five shots of the two snakes wrapping around each other. The top four images were captured over no more than 2 seconds total, and the large image was taken less than 7 seconds after the top four. (Marc C. Perkins)
A five image sequence of two southern pacific rattlesnakes (_Crotalus oreganus_ helleri) mating. The top four images were captured over no more than 2 seconds total, and the large image was taken less than 7 seconds after the top four. Click on the image to see it larger.

Shortly after that, however, either they were done or they noticed us. One of them slithered off into the bushes, while the other almost seemed to stand guard, staring out at us with tongue flicking.

Shortly after the amazingly-fast coiling seen in my prior images, the two snakes separated. One slithered off into the brush, while the other started paying just a bit too much attention to me and my colleagues for my tastes. So, we decided to part ways amicably; I even got a nice rattle as the snake slithered away. (Marc C. Perkins)
Shortly after the amazingly fast coiling seen in my prior images, the two snakes separated. One slithered off into the brush, while the other started paying just a bit too much attention to me and my colleagues for my taste. Click on the image to see it larger.

We took the hint and started to move off, and the guard snake did the same, giving us a nice rattle as it crawled into the brush.

It was easily one of the most exciting animal encounters I’ve had while hiking or backpacking. They were incredibly fast as they coiled and writhed, and their ritual was entrancingly beautiful.

Continue reading Rattlesnake mating: frantic sensuality in the grass →

A new self portrait: candlelight at night

Photography

While out backpacking at Crystal Cove State Park a few weeks ago I decided to experiment with some night photography. I was hoping to do some star work, but heavy fog nixed that idea. I instead played with some flower and intimate landscape work, but nothing really shone.

I also decided to try a self portrait, lit only by the light of a windproof camping candle given to me by a hiking friend who (sadly) moved away last year. Here’s the result:

A good friend who moved away last year gave me this windproof candle housing for backpacking. While experimenting with night photography on a foggy night at the Lower Moro Campground at Crystal Cove I captured this picture of myself. I call it, "Thinking of you." (Marc C. Perkins)
"Thinking of you."

More pictures

To see more pictures from the trip, head to my Crystal Cove State Park Wilderness Gallery or read my Flowers of Crystal Cove State Park: The joys of a foggy morning post.

Flowers of Crystal Cove State Park: The joys of a foggy morning

Biology, California, Orange County, Photography, ,

A few weeks ago I went backpacking with a couple of friends in Crystal Cove State Park’s inland section. We camped overnight at the Lower Moro Campground, and were the only ones there. It was wonderfully peaceful.

Fog rolled in a few hours before the sun went down, so sunset, moon, and starry night shots were all out. But the fog hung around until well after dawn, leaving everything covered in a beautiful shroud of dew the next morning. It made for perfect macro photography, and my companions were patient enough to let me spend some time trying to capture the beauty.

I woke up to a foggy morning at Lower Moro campground in Crystal Cove, and found this beautiful little purple and white flower covered in dew. I love the few strands of spider silk connecting the flower to its stalk, also covered in water droplets. A botanist friend of mine identified this as _Stephanomeria sp._, a plant in Asteraceae. (Thanks Jeremy!) (Marc C. Perkins)
A beautiful way to wake up. I love the few strands of dew-covered spider silk connecting the flower to its stalk. A botanist friend of mine identified this as wreath plant, _Stephanomeria sp._, a plant in Asteraceae. (Thanks Jeremy!)

The same plant was also covered in tiny flower buds, which the dew accentuated gorgeously:

This small green and purple flower bud growing out of a stem is covered in dew on a foggy morning at Crystal Cove, and the dew is lensing the background into focus. The few strands of spider silk are also covered in dew. A botanist friend of mine identified this as wreath plant, _Stephanomeria sp._, a plant in Asteraceae. (Thanks Jeremy!)
A small green and purple flower bud (_Stephanomeria sp._) covered in dew on a foggy morning at Crystal Cove.

I also got a picture of the same plant with both a flower bud and flower in the same frame, but I won’t bore you with that in this post.

Nearby there was a shrubby aster covered in bright yellow flowers:

This yellow Asteraceae flower is a composite flower (capitulum)consisting of multiple individual flowers attached to the same base. Here the flowers on the outside of the composite flower (the ray florets) are open, but the inner flowers (the disk florets) are still closed. The ray florets fuse their petals into one giant lobe. See the next picture to see the same plant's flower with the disk florets open. This is most likely one of the several species of tarplant, possibly _Deinandra_. (Marc C. Perkins)
This yellow Asteraceae flower is a composite flower (capitulum) consisting of multiple individual flowers attached to the same base. Here the flowers on the outside of the composite flower (the ray florets) are open, but the inner flowers (the disk florets) are still closed. The ray florets fuse their petals into one giant lobe. This is most likely one of the several species of tarplant, possibly _Deinandra_.

Some of the inflorescences were just starting to open (above), while others were almost fully open (below):

Continue reading Flowers of Crystal Cove State Park: The joys of a foggy morning →

Photographing lichen: using a hand-held reflector to get better lighting

Biology, Photography, Tutorial,

Lichen are visually fascinating: their bodies have gorgeous textures, lines, and colors. But capturing all of that can be challenging. Take, for instance:

This is the exact same lichen as two other pitures featured elsewhere (http://bit.ly/p76e4K and http://bit.ly/o76PpT), but unlike those two this has diffuse, even lighting applied. I like the other two better, and am posting this one primarily as a contrast. A brown-fringed gray foliose lichen overgrowing at least three other morphologies of lichen on a rock. I believe the primary lichen has numerous isidia (small finger-like structures protruding from the thallus). My best guess is that this is in _Physcia_, but I'm not sure. This lichen was found in Vasquez Rocks County Park in Los Angeles County. (Marc C. Perkins)
Even, diffuse lighting allows for the entire body to be viewed, but textures and height have been minimized. My best guess is that this is in _Physcia_, but I'm not sure. This lichen was found in Vasquez Rocks County Park in Los Angeles County.

That lichen has gazillions of lines and textures on its body, but the diffuse shade lighting isn’t helping show them 1.

I typically seek out lichen that are in the shade, but in an area that has full sun available only a few inches away.  This means I can hand-hold a small reflector 2 to bounce sunlight back onto the lichen, trying different angles as I work the camera.  Here’s the exact same lichen with reflected light added to the shot:

A brown-fringed gray foliose lichen overgrowing at least three other morphologies of lichen on a rock. I believe the primary lichen has numerous isidia (small finger-like structures protruding from the thallus). My best guess is that this is in _Physcia_, but I'm not sure. This lichen was found in Vasquez Rocks County Park in Los Angeles County. The scale bar is 5mm (contact me if you want a version of the image without the scale bar). (Marc C. Perkins)
Reflected light added from the left of the image. The scale bar is 5mm.

In that image I’m reflecting light in from the left of the image, and holding the reflector a good distance away from the rock (nearer to the camera) to shorten and soften the shadows. The textures of the lichen are brought out beautifully.

If you want to add more lighting contrast, just hold the reflector closer to the rock so the light comes in at a shallow angle and the shadows get less fill:

A brown-fringed gray foliose lichen overgrowing at least three other morphologies of lichen on a rock. I believe the primary lichen has numerous isidia (small finger-like structures protruding from the thallus). My best guess is that this is in _Physcia_, but I'm not sure. This lichen was found in Vasquez Rocks County Park in Los Angeles County. The scale bar is 5mm (contact me if you want a version of the image without the scale bar). (Marc C. Perkins)
Reflected light added from the right of the images. The scale bar is 5mm.

In that shot the reflector’s now to the right of the lichen, and lower to the rock. The lichen looks, on first glance, completely different. In fact, it looks so different that I included two pictures of the same lichen in my introduction to lichen post; did you notice they were the same?

And, for your comparative pleasure, here are all three images stacked up:

Continue reading Photographing lichen: using a hand-held reflector to get better lighting →

An introduction to the beauty and diversity of lichen

Biology, Los Angeles County, Photography, ,

Last week I visited Vasquez Rocks, and wrote about the trip in this post. While the geological features were neat, what really interested me were the critters growing on the rocks. After all, what organismal biologist can go to a park with the word “rocks” in the name and not look for lichen?

For those who don’t remember Bio 101, lichen are a symbiotic organism: they’re a fungus and either a green alga or cyanobacterium living as a single unit. Fungi are masters of living in dry, dessicated environments with low nutrients (many plants have fungal symbionts that help the plant’s roots get nutrients out of the soil). However, fungi can’t obtain energy from sunlight.  Luckily for lichen, algae and cyanobacteria are photosynthesis experts. Pair the two up and you’ve got an amazing organism: one that can survive in a desert, exposed to the full summer sun all day while living on nothing but bare rock. No soil to get nutrients out of. No possibility to send roots down to the water table. They’re awesome.

But from far away, lichen don’t look like much1 . After all, many species of lichen require years to grow a centimeter or two (growth rates of lichen are typically reported as mm/year). But look up close, and the beauty of these organisms reveals itself as a complexly structured body consisting of beautiful lines, textures, and colors.

A brown-fringed gray foliose lichen overgrowing at least three other morphologies of lichen on a rock. I believe the primary lichen has numerous isidia (small finger-like structures protruding from the thallus). My best guess is that this is in _Physcia_, but I'm not sure. This lichen was found in Vasquez Rocks County Park in Los Angeles County. The scale bar is 5mm (contact me if you want a version of the image without the scale bar). (Marc C. Perkins)
A brown-fringed gray foliose lichen on a rock. My best guess is that this is in _Physcia_, but I'm not sure. The scale bar is 5mm (contact me if you want a version of the image without the scale bar).

Quick quiz: how many species of lichen are visible in that picture?

The gray one that fills the frame is the dominant individual, but there’s at least four species visible2. And the gray one is overgrowing all the other three.  This is competition, lichen style. Lichen have only a limited amount of area where they can grow (the surface of some substrate), and inevitably they start to run into each other. Since they get their energy from light, whoever can overgrow the other is likely to win. You’re witnessing a fight to the death.

The number of lichen visible in that picture also demonstrates another characteristic of lichen that I love: they’re diverse. Walk into any given habitat that’s amenable to lichen, and within a few feet you’ll likely find a dozen or more different species. They’ll be different colors, textures, shapes, and sizes. See, for instance:

A crustose yellow ascomycete lichen growing on a rock. Multiple apothecia are visible. I believe this may be _Acarospora socialis_, but I'm not sure. This lichen was found in Vasquez Rocks County Park in Los Angeles County. The scale bar is 5mm (contact me if you want a version of the image without the scale bar). (Marc C. Perkins)
A crustose yellow ascomycete lichen growing on a rock. Multiple apothecia are visible. I believe this may be _Acarospora_ (_Acarospora socialis_?) or _Pleopsidium_, but I'm not sure. The scale bar is 5mm (contact me if you want a version of the image without the scale bar).

Most lichen are ascomycetes, meaning that their fruiting bodies are based around asci, which are often found in cup-shaped structures. Take a look at the picture above, and you’ll see a couple of little cups; these are their apothecia, and they’re filled with spores that will be released into the air to grow into new lichen.

Adding to the diversity of lichen is the range of sizes they come in. Compared to the two above, the ones below are growing as tiny individual units:

Continue reading An introduction to the beauty and diversity of lichen →

Vasquez Rocks: Day and Night

California, Los Angeles County, Photography,

Last Tuesday Greg was invited to give a talk at the Lancaster Photographic Association; we carpooled up there, and on the way stopped at Vasquez Rocks. This county park houses an unusual formation of rocks, whose main claim to fame seems to be that they’ve been featured in numerous movies and TV shows.

Vasquez Rocks, in Los Angeles County, were featured prominently in the Star Trek episode "Arena". This is the rock formation on the left-hand side of the classic shot of Kirk facing off with the alien Gorn. (Marc C. Perkins)
Vasquez Rocks from the parking lot, which is the same view that is often used in films.

Vasquez Rocks were featured prominently in the Star Trek episode “Arena” 1. The formation seen above is on the left-hand side of the classic shot of Kirk facing off with the alien Gorn; scroll down on this page to see the classic Star Trek shot2.

The rocks are indeed visually interesting, and I wish we’d had more time to explore them.  I got distracted by all the beautiful lichen present (which will the feature of a separate post), and so didn’t even make it halfway around the rock formations before we had to leave.

Many people were having fun climbing the rocks, leading to great opportunities to add some scale to the pictures:

A woman climbs the primary peak of Vasquez Rocks, an unusual formation of rocks in Los Angeles County that's been featured in many films and TV shows (including Star Trek!). (Marc C. Perkins)
A woman climbs the primary peak of Vasquez Rocks.

As we drove home after Greg’s talk we watched a beautiful sunset over I-14, and decided to stop at the park to see what we could find. We got there just as dusk was ending, and the park was sadly closed.  But we set up outside and had fun playing with star photography.

I’ve been drooling over star trails for some time now, and before the trip Greg had been nice enough to send me an excellent star trail tutorial, as well as post an excellent example of the start trail genre to motivate me. Thanks to his help, within a few minutes I’d captured this:

A star trail taken just after dusk from outside the Vasquez Rocks park. I love the yellow-orange misty clouds and rocky silhouette at the bottom. This was my very first star trail; many thanks to Greg (of Alpenglow Images) for helping me capture this! (Marc C. Perkins)
A star trail taken just after dusk from outside the Vasquez Rocks park. Click on the image to view it on a dark background.

Sadly, when I captured the first picture of the night (to test exposure time and composition) and looked at the preview, I thought the lines next to the stars meant that the tripod had vibrated during the shot. Oops. Who knew the stars moved so fast?

Greg then informed me that to freeze the motion of the stars the longest shutter speed you can use is 600 divided by the focal length of the lens. We didn’t know if that was the cropped focal length or the actual focal length of the lens, but I used it as an estimation to get frozen stars:

Taken just after dusk from outside the Vasquez Rocks park proper, this exposure was short enough to freeze the stars' motion. This was my very first starry night shot without star trails; many thanks to Greg (of Alpenglow Images) for helping me capture this! (Marc C. Perkins)
Taken just after dusk from outside the Vasquez Rocks park proper, this exposure was short enough to freeze the stars' motion. Click on the image to view it on a dark background.

Continue reading Vasquez Rocks: Day and Night →