Monolith Rock and the Ancient Juniper

About the shot:
This was shot on the same night as my last star trail post. I shot this one first but after reviewing the shots on the cameras display, I decided to turn away from the light pollution and shot the other direction out of my target composition. I was going to trash this one because the light pollution was so horrible. But I managed to fix it up in post and the final result looked pretty good.

Insights:
Star Trails are great and it gives you something else to shoot if the Milky Way isn't available for a composition, you know what they say, the show must go on. :)

About The Location:
This formation is also know as balanced rock and the juniper is a western juniper and I was told by the ranger is estimated to be some 1800 years old. I know it looks scrawny, but this thing is a marvel, it grows directly out of a crack in the granite(No soil?). This tree has seen better days from what I can tell, there were 4 branches sprouting off of the main trunk with this one now being the only survivor.

How I did it:
There are 3 lights used for this scene at different angles. one is behind me on my left, a second is behind the tree facing the stone, and a third is lighting the coyotes den that is 15ft from the stones right side on the left side of the photo, that panel was sitting on a tripod shining directly down the barrow covering the opening. I figured that if I covered the opening and one were to exit the den, it would knock over the panel alerting me of it's exit. This was an active den as was evidenced by fresh tracks and some sounds now and then emanating from it's depths. This made it somewhat difficult to nap during the exposures which is what I was trying to do during the first shot. This is a shorter series then the last shot. It is 80 images shot over a period of 45 mins Here's a link to the other star trail photo taken from the other direction. Hope you like it !! :)

www.flickr.com/photos/dot21studios/22053045948/in/photost...

Hot Tip of the Day:
If you are planning to shoot some star trails, try to bring along something to sit or rest on. I use a Kool Team Green sitting pad that I purchased at the California Speedway which I had to run back to the car and grab during one of the exposures, leaving my camera unattended for a short period of time. It's lite and easily attaches onto the outside of my camera pack. :)

If you have any other questions about this photo or about photography in general, I will do my best to help, just post a comment or send me a Flickr mail and I will respond as quickly as possible.

For those of you new to photography, I would like to provide you with some very helpful videos that will help you get more from your photography. They were very useful to me while I was learning and I hope that they will help you out as well. Just click the link below and on the left side column there are pre-made playlists which I created so that I could go back and reference them at anytime There are playlist topics on everything you could ever want to know about photography. I hope you enjoy them and as always my friends "Happy Shooting"

www.youtube.com/channel/UCy6WmwikGospj_jgj5KQzLQ

Thank you for taking the time to take a look at my photos and as always, your views, comments, faves, and support are greatly appreciated!! Have a great day everyone :)

Taken on: October 11, 2015

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