Stars Trail over Bixby Bridge
Timing clear skies and a full moon can be hard, but I manged to snag this star trail over the Bixby Bridge in Big Sur on my last road trip. ...
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Timing clear skies and a full moon can be hard, but I manged to snag this star trail over the Bixby Bridge in Big Sur on my last road trip.
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Mar, 2015Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken on the south side of the Bixby Bridge in Big Sur, California.Time
I started the trails around 1am as I had to wait for the moon to rise over the hills behind me.Lighting
This is all moon light aside from the streaks on the bridge. There was some car travel during the shot, which I decided to leave in the final shot.Equipment
This was shot with my Canon 7D with a Tokina 11-16mm lens. I used an old tripod I need to upgrade and the TriggerTrap app to trigger the camera.Inspiration
I've always enjoyed shooting star trails. After making the trek back and forth between Southern and Northern California, I started to try and time my trips to match the moon and luck out on the weather.Editing
Other than some color correcting and the stacking in photoshop, there isn't much post processing done to the image.In my camera bag
I Use a Pelican case to keep all my gear safe as I do a lot of traveling and the Backpack just wasn't cutting it. In the case is a 1D3 and 7D along with 11-16mm, 17-40mm, 50mm (f/1.8) and 70-200mm (f/2.8 non-IS) glass. Along with the glass I keep my TriggerTrap dongle, remote, superclamp, various JOBY mounts and arms and a bunch of other random stuff I may need or left in there from a previous shoot.Feedback
You don't need anything extreme to capture a star trail. You could really get away with just your camera and some tape. Set your camera for a properly exposed 30sec exposure. Put it down and tape the shutter button down. and let the camera run. Thats it. From there, its all just tweaking and perfecting the shot. A decent starting point for a kit is a sturdy tripod, a cheapo wired remote that locks and a camera that can shoot continuous 30sec exposures.
