Starry, Starry Nights | Northern California Landscape Photography
Starry, starry nights and oftentimes mornings, my Utah trip included plenty of astrophotography. What better place than the very dark skies in the area of Moab, Utah.
Photographing Stars and the Milky Way in Utah’s Dark Skies
Utah is a dream destination for night sky photography. With some of the darkest skies in North America, it's no surprise that photographers and astrophotographers from around the world flock to its national parks, remote deserts, and designated Dark Sky Places to capture the stunning beauty of the Milky Way and the stars above. Utah is home to over 20 certified International Dark Sky Parks, including the two parks in which we primarily shot - Arches NP and Canyonlands NP.
Thanks to low light pollution, high elevation, and dry air, these locations offer crystal-clear views of the Milky Way and countless stars on clear nights. Since we were there during the New Moon phase, we were assured of some very dark skies in which the stars really popped!
Night Sky Photography
On the particular night that I intended to capture photographs for star trails and for a time lapse, I set up two cameras, one for each scenario. The settings did not need to be dramatically different for each, but they were somewhat. I took a few test shots for each and after achieving good results in both cameras, I set the intervalometers on each to begin photographing for what would be about two hours in order to capture the movement of the Milky Way. For two hours, I waited and chatted with the photographer next to me. I could not ‘peek’ at the images that were being captured as that would have disrupted the rhythm of the sequences. So, we continued to wait, chat, and keep warm under that clear desert sky.
When the two hours was over and my cameras had quit recording images, I finally was able to take a look. The photos in the camera set to capture the Timelapse (about 450 photos) looked great! The photos in the second camera set to take the star trails looked great for the first five frames, and then… totally out of focus! Ugh! The remaining 258 frames were blurry. I was so disappointed!
I think focus is the most difficult part of night time photography. I certainly had focus to begin with but then the setting changed. Either I accidentally hit the auto-focus button, or forgot to turn off the auto-focus and the camera tried to focus on its own. Or, maybe something else happened. All of this is to say, there is always something more to learn!
Photograph Those Stars
Whether you are planning to photograph stars in Utah or in any other dark sky area, I hope you have fun, enjoy the serenity, and I wish you good luck!
Milky Way over Skyline Arch, Arches NP, Utah
Skyline Arch, Milky Way Tail
Galatic Core of the Milky Way headed to Skyline Arch
Star Trails at Sky Line Arch
Milky Way Over Balanced Rock
Milky Way Over Park Ave., Utah
Milky Way Over Park Avenue, Utah
Here are two images that I spoke about in the above text. The photo on the left is one of the 450 images for the time-lapse. (I’ll have that ready soon!) The one on the right is one of 250 of the out-of-focus photos I took for star trails. Fortunately, I had time at Skyline Arch to make a star trail image. (Above)
My friend said I should be able to make something creative out of the out-of-focus photos. IDK I attempted to blend them for a star trails image, but it just looked like blobby lines. Any suggestions?
Thanks for reading and commenting. Happy shooting!
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As a published, featured northern California fine art photographer living in the greater Sacramento area, I specialize in fine art landscape, nature, and still life photography. My style is authentic, fresh and personality-driven. I offer several educational opportunities including workshops and photography mentoring. You can learn about them by going to SERVICES and WORKSHOPS. While currently living in rural northern California with my husband and a couple thousand walnut trees, I post regularly to Instagram.
Please CONTACT ME with any questions or to schedule your learning session.
Serving Yuba City/Marysville, East Nicolaus, Wheatland, Lincoln, Woodland, Davis, Roseville, Rocklin, and the greater Sacramento area.
(530) 633-7575
Starry, starry nights and oftentimes mornings, my Utah trip included plenty of astrophotography. What better place than the very dark skies in the area of Moab, Utah.