While driving through Zion National Park last fall I saw this little tree clinging to a boulder off the side of the road, and thinking it would be a good subject for some night photography, I came back after twilight and set up the camera for startrails.
Composition was difficult in the dark, but I had a couple of lights to illuminate the striated foreground. I spent some minutes light painting the subject tree and the rock and the surrounding landscape before leaving the camera alone for an hour to collect continuous 30-second exposures of the earth's rotation.
The final challenge was combining all the elements in Photoshop in a way that looked natural, but I'm happy with the result; I like the geometry, the way the star and rock circles flow together, and the coincidental but seemingly artificial line that cuts across the middle of the frame and makes it look like two photos stuck together.
What do you think? Was it worth the late night out?
