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This image overlooks Sedona, Arizona, taken from the airport overlook on the south side of the town, looking north towards Capital butte, Coffee Pot rock and other famous sandstone features.
This shot was taken late at night, during a full moon which cast an ethereal light onto the hills behind Sedona.
The idea was to take a series of 120 thirty second exposures over a one hour period, and then blend the exposures together to show star trails rotating around Polaris which was in the upper right part of the frame.
The best laid plans however...Just after I had started taking the sequence a bank of cloud rolled in over the town and blocked the stars from view!
I carried on in the hope that the clouds would disperse but they never did, and this shot is just one of the 120 I took that night.
Still, I find the moonlit buttes, cloudy sky and brightly lit town to make a strangely compelling image even wthout the star trails. I'll just have to try that technique again on another night, this time without the clouds!
Filename - sandstone buttes town 04.jpg
Camera - Canon 5D
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 32mm
Exposure - 30secs @ f5, ISO200
Location - Sedona, Arizona
This image - 800x533px JPEG
Conversion - ACR & PS-CS2
Comments - Tripod, mirror lockup and cable release used to prevent camera movement.
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2026 unless otherwise stated.