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Contest Finalist in Night Wonders Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Shutter Speed Experiments Photo Contest
Honorable Mention in Roads Photo Contest
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Contest Finalist in Simply HDR Photo Contest
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Behind The Lens
Location
I was in the USA to take photos of the solar eclipse and this location at Rowena Crest near Portland Oregon was on my list of locations to check out.Time
This is a series of multiple exposures taken over a couple of hours between dusk and night. This was so that I could get the correct exposure of the road, trees and get the milky way as well.Lighting
The trail of car lights is what makes this image special. This road is a back road that's barely used even during the day and I found that I was sitting waiting for cars that never appeared. There were also a couple of local photographers there too who were just as frustrated. In the end one of them jumped in his car and drove back and forth around the loop until his friend said he'd taken enough images. Without that this image wouldn't have worked so a big thanks to him.Equipment
This was taken with a Canon 5d mkIII and a tripod with a ball head. I also use Magic Lantern to capture the multiple and long exposures.Inspiration
I'd watched a video of another photographer taking a photo at this location during the day and I thought it would be one that would work well with vehicle light trails. It was also on the way from Portland to Madras where I was going to take photos of the solar eclipse.Editing
There's lots of post processing involved in this image. The light trails are multiple images combined to get the number and spread of lights. The foreground loop was taken at dusk so that the trees and road is exposed correctly without too much noise and the sky is taken from another later image so that the milky way can be seen.In my camera bag
I've a Canon 5d mkIII and a 6d both of which I love and use in different situations. I've a range of lenses most of which are zoom lenses which give me flexibility when framing my subject. This was taken with a Canon 16-35mm f4L which is my favorite landscape lens.Feedback
Planing and more planning. This was an image that I knew I wanted to capture whilst on my trip so I looked at google maps, Photopills (sunset and stars) to ensure I knew where I wanted to take the picture from. I was also there early to set up in the spot that I wanted whilst it was still light and before other photographers turned up (and they did). The other thing is patience and trust that you are in the right position and that moving the camera once set up won't improve the image (sometimes it does but for me that tends to be for sunrise images where I've not had a chance to properly scout a location before arriving). If I'd have moved this one before the stars were visible then it wouldn't have been as effective.