Pillthrill said:
I don't know if you mentioned it when you posted it, but how did you get that effect?
It was a long exposure (30 minutes to be exact, the longest you can go with most digital cameras before the battery goes kaput).
I used a Nikon D70s w/ a Tokina 12-24mm wide angle lens (and a tripod of course, I can hold a camera pretty still but not for 30 minutes lol). Exposure: 30 minutes @ f/8, 24mm.
It was up in the mountains outside of Santa Barbara, CA. There was very little light so it was ideal for star trails (leaving the shutter open long enough to record the earth's movement = star trails). This can only be done at night in the darkest of settings of course, since doing so when the sun is up will result in an overexposed image). Since the earth rotates on an axis, if you point the camera towards the north star (Polaris) you can literally record the earth rotating around it's axis.
There was very little light up there so I had to light the structure with a flashlight while the shutter was open (roughly 6 seconds of flashlight exposure on the structure). This technique is called "painting with light", and usually involves "painting" a subject with a flashlight or other source of light while the shutter is open. This way I was able to record both the star trails and the light reflecting off of the structure, resulting in what you see there
Star trails themselves are really pretty easy, if you have a camera capable of being set to "bulb", then slap it on a tripod pointed at the night sky (w/out any light pollution, if there's too much ambient light from a nearby source or the moon then you'll end up overexposed). Lock the shutter open for as long as your camera will allow (most digitals = 30 min.). If you use film, you can keep the shutter open all night and literally photograph star trails that go in a complete circle. Better yet, take a trip to a remote part of Northern Canada where it's dark for months at a time, and leave the shutter open on your film camera for a full 24 hours. You'll get a neat shot of the earth's full rotation
