Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Landscape Photography Locations => Topic started by: Ryan Mack on January 17, 2018, 10:11:07 am

Title: Joshua Tree at night
Post by: Ryan Mack on January 17, 2018, 10:11:07 am
Thinking of heading to Joshua Tree for some night photography this weekend. Curious if anyone has a favorite trail/area/monument for light painting, star trails, etc. Not looking for a nighttime hike, maybe a mile or two from road access at most.
Title: Re: Joshua Tree at night
Post by: sierraman on January 18, 2018, 12:46:13 pm
The best thing to do is get there well before sunset and find a couple of compositions that fit your eye. The Jumbo Rocks area is fun for sunset photo's but not the best for star trails. The Hidden Valley area has numerous places to park and just start hiking away from the road. Also, Barker Dam is in that area and is a fun little hike. The good news is since the North Star is facing away from the light pollution in the south (Palm Springs), you should have very little light pollution in your star trails.  :)
Title: Re: Joshua Tree at night
Post by: Peter McLennan on January 18, 2018, 02:22:54 pm
I'll second the recommendation for the Jumbo Rocks area unless you're looking for solitude.  There's an excellent campground there.
Title: Re: Joshua Tree at night
Post by: Ryan Mack on January 22, 2018, 02:29:50 pm
Thank you for the advice all had a great time. Here's my two favorite shots from the trip.
Title: Re: Joshua Tree at night
Post by: sierraman on January 22, 2018, 03:38:54 pm
Nice. Looks like you found the North Star.  :)
Title: Re: Joshua Tree at night
Post by: Ryan Mack on January 22, 2018, 05:08:53 pm
I used PhotoPills to roughly plan out the shot but it's just dumb luck that the North Star ended up visible mid-branches. I didn't even realize that until I processed the images. I ran into a problem with my camera though, for some reason it pauses for 3 seconds between 30 seconds exposures. So if you zoom in you can see some discontinuity in the trails. I'm going to have to try fiddling around with the settings to get that sorted out for next time.
Title: Re: Joshua Tree at night
Post by: ShawnBK on February 07, 2018, 12:53:56 am
Ryan, That is one perfect shot. Any metadata u can share?
   Thanx.