Lions Gateway by abirkill

Lions Gateway

The west coast had a disappointment last weekend when a strong aurora forecast that gave those on the east coast a great display, but faded away to nothing just as darkness arrived over here.

However, there have been other opportunities for night sky photography. This is a shot that I've been meaning to try out for a while, to see how strongly I can pick up star trails in a city location with the right techniques and conditions, and I finally got around to a couple of weeks ago.

While there's lots of possible places to try this out, this location, on the far side of Stanley Park looking north towards the Lions Gate Bridge, has always struck me as being one that could work well. With a northerly view, it's possible to capture Polaris in the photograph, which is almost perfectly aligned with the north celestial pole. This means that this star appears to stay stationary, while the others appear to rotate around it.

I knew I needed two things to make this shot work, exceptionally clear skies, and a rising moon. Any cloud or even haze in the sky would pick up the bright city lights (downtown Vancouver is only about 3km behind me from here), making it very difficult to capture all but the brightest stars. The rising moon, which would be behind me, would help light up the trees in Stanley Park and prevent them from being completely in silhouette. Finally I got the right conditions and went out to give it a go.

The one thing I hadn't considered was the tide, as I wanted to shoot this from very low down to get the reflections of the bridge in the water. The location was also trickier than I'd hoped, as I also wanted to get both of the bridge towers in, preventing me from going further to the left as the trees would start to block one. The tide was low, but not as low as I would have liked, leaving me a very thin piece of dry(ish) land to set up on. As the tide was coming in, I knew I'd only have about an hour and a half of shooting before the water level got too high again, so I didn't hang around!

For this photo, I used stacking to capture many shot exposures of the stars which can be combined in software, rather than one long exposure of the stars. I took 146 consecutive photos, each at 16mm, ISO 1000, f/4, for 20 seconds. This captured as many stars as possible without starting to overexpose the sky. These were then stacked in StarStax to form the trails. A couple of shots at a lower exposure captured the detail in the bridge towers, which were a little overexposed, and these were blending in using luminosity masking to create this final shot.

Click on the photo to view it on a black background for best effect! You can also view my other night sky photos here: http://365project.org/abirkill/tags/astrophotography
Amazing. Fav.
September 18th, 2014  
Brilliant work Alexis
September 18th, 2014  
Amazing shot. Love it A Fav
September 18th, 2014  
Cool star trails. Beautiful background.
September 18th, 2014  
This is fantastic! Love the star trails! Fav
September 18th, 2014  
Simply amazing work!!!
September 18th, 2014  
Love it!
Fav
September 18th, 2014  
Fabulous shot and narrative. I enjoy reading your narratives as much as looking at your amazing photography. A big FAV
September 18th, 2014  
Beautiful shot! Fav!
September 18th, 2014  
Brilliant image Alexis. Fav
September 18th, 2014  
Great shot
September 18th, 2014  
Such a super shot and love your explanation behind all of the thought put into the scene. Really appreciate the time you put into it, as so many of those aspects I would never have thought of.
September 18th, 2014  
This is spectacular! I always enjoy your work and truly appreciate your taking the time to explain how you are able to create such amazing images!! Big Fav for me!
September 18th, 2014  
A super composition. Fav
September 18th, 2014  
Awesome. Fav!
September 18th, 2014  
Stunning Fav Alexis! I'm always excited to see your posts and this one is a beauty! Your meticulous attention to detail and the planning that goes into your shots is inspiring!
September 18th, 2014  
I really enjoy viewing your work, because it is beautiful, but the technical explanations are a big bonus for me (as a beginner, I always learn a lot when I read how you accomplished your work). Thank you! :)
September 18th, 2014  
Amazing shot! Fav.
September 18th, 2014  
as usual fabulously wonderful great shot, alexis. and hopefully someday i'll be able to do this. nah, who am i kidding, perhaps in my next life. :-)
September 18th, 2014  
Stunning - and thanks for all the details.
September 18th, 2014  
Amazing capture! Fav!
September 18th, 2014  
Very cool shot.
September 18th, 2014  
Amazing shot - love your detailed narrative. Fav
September 18th, 2014  
Another Fav Alexis! Love this stuff!
September 18th, 2014  
Another great shot Alexis and thanks for all the background information. Now lets see 146 shots at 20 secs per shot plus 5 secs in between = 146 x 25secs = 1 hour
September 18th, 2014  
Enjoyed your write up on the planning and execution of this shot. Plus of course your impressive image.
September 18th, 2014  
Fav.
September 18th, 2014  
Wow!!! Fav for me too!!!
September 18th, 2014  
fav..cool!!
September 18th, 2014  
your photos always amaze me!!
September 19th, 2014  
Wow. Fabulous, Alexis!
September 19th, 2014  
Awesome shot! Fav!
September 20th, 2014  
gorgeous - love the clarity
September 20th, 2014  
Ria
FAV swirl on:))
September 20th, 2014  
Really beautiful, fav!
September 24th, 2014  
When I grow up I want to take pictures like you! This is truly stunning! fav
September 25th, 2014  
Congrats on TT.
September 26th, 2014  
Congrats on TT recognition for this brilliant work of art!
September 26th, 2014  
Congrats, Alexis.
September 27th, 2014  
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