My son and I took a December trip to Arches and Canyonlands recently. I wanted to do star photography in Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. The air was cold and clear and it made for amazing star viewing.
Mesa Arch in Canyonlands
We stopped at the Island in the sky section of Canyonlands to catch the sunset at Green River Overlook. Then it was on to Mesa Arch to watch the stars. Unlike sunrise when upwards of 20 photographers crowd the small arch to catch first light on the arch, the area is virtually deserted after dark. My son and I had the arch to ourselves this particular evening. We did exposures to get both pinpoint stars and a long 30 minute exposure to produce star trails. It was a cold evening but an amazing one as well. We tried lighting up the arch with a flashlight but discovered that low power was the key since the arch was so close to our position.
Delicate Arch in Arches
We also hiked up to Delicate Arch to catch sunset and waited around for the sky to get dark. The 100 or so spectators dwindled to about 10 after dark. The people who left missed a star show of epic proportions. I have never seen so many stars out before. However, given ten people were there and each had their own agenda, it made it a little difficult to do all the various star photography requirements. The group down in front didn’t want flashlights on so it was hard to take pictures while lighting up the arch. Given there were people down front, it was also impossible to do a long exposure since headlamps would occasionally turn on and get in the picture. But it was still a fun experience and cool to see all those stars.
Miops Camera Trigger
I tried out a camera trigger for the first time. This one was made by Miops. In addition to acting as an intervalometer, it can also be triggered by lightning, sound, and laser. The app downloaded to my phone worked pretty well. It triggered the camera and was relatively easy to use. I used it to take a series of 10 shots of the scene to stack together later and to do a 30 minute timed exposure.
