Bishop glyphs

Grand Staircase-Escalante NP #4

Milky Way over Mt. Rainier

The lights on the mountain are climbers going for the summit.

Caribou Lake Eternity

After a butt kicking hike out to these lakes I realized the Milky Way would soon be rising above the ridge line to the east. It had been pretty windy throughout sunset and into the evening so I was more than pleased to see the wind die down and offer such an awesome reflection in the water. This image was made at Caribou Lake, which is the largest lake in the Trinity Alps, one of the more scenic coastal mountain ranges in Northern California.

One Half Turn of Polaris

This is 1380 25 second exposures shot just outside the city of Chico where I live. These images take several days to put together after all the shooting is done. The bright white star in the center of all the circles is Polaris, the north star. This image shows that Polaris is not perfectly aligned with the axial rotation of our Earth, but is in fact about 3 degrees off. As this image was made over the course of nearly 12 hours, or one half rotation of the Earth, the arc made by Polaris is nearly one half of a circle. Crop Suggestion: 4:6 or any 2:3 ratio

Stars of Lassen

The best part of overnight snowshoeing trips is that there are very few other people around. In this case, there were none close enough to be aware of. The headlights of cars could still be seen on the distant horizon to the south, but Lassen Peak (right) and Mt. Diller (center left) blocked the remote chance of being bothered by lights to the north. I had hoped to make a star trail image on this adventure, but the weather did not allow. I still set up my camera to shoot a timelapse just in case the clouds cleared while I was sleeping. The clouds did not clear up but I did come back with some cool images like the one above. The combination of stars and moonlight, I have found, makes for very well lit nighttime photography. The moonlight also allows for using a lower ISO setting so that the final image is not overly grainy. Crop suggestion: 10x20 or any 1:2 ratio

Star Trails over Granite Lake, Trinity Alps

Crop suggestion: 8:20 or any 1:2.5 ratio

Star Trails over Mt. Shasta

Crop Suggestion: any 1:1 square ratio.

Old Man Oak Star Trails

I made this image several times before getting a composition that I was happy with. That meant going back to the same place on several nights as each star trail takes most of the night. This particular image is about 550 images all stacked together to show the motion of the stars. Crop suggestion: 4x6 or any 2:3 ratio

Bidwell Stars over Big Chico Creek

This photo took some doing. As my arm was still healing from a break the previous summer, I walked out to this spot in Upper Bidwell Park rather than riding my bike. Once I had managed to maneuver my way down to the river I had to figure out a stable way to suspend my tripod over the river to make this long exposure. I also planned on making a star trail so was down there sitting on a rock in the middle of the river for about 2 hours. That image did not turn out. But the time spent down there reading did a good job of draining my head lamp's battery so the walk back to the car got a little dark... All in all a good little adventure, and lessons are always learned. Crop suggestion: 4x6 or any 2:3 ratio