Glacier Point Star Trails
Many years ago, I bought the Rokinon 12mm fisheye for one particular photo that it made possible. Since then, I've kept the lens with one more shot in mind: this one. I finally was successful.
I wanted to shoot the North Star from Glacier Point in the winter and have both Half Dome and the lights of Yosemite Valley in the photo. When I composed this shot, I realized that Yosemite Falls (left) and Nevada Falls (right) just fit into the frame too. I put the horizon through the middle of the frame to keep it straight. The fisheye lens projection kepts the star trails circular, whereas a wide rectilinear lens would stretch the star trails into egg shapes.
Getting to Glacier Point in the winter was a major effort, especially since it was snowing on me during the 10-hour snowshoe in and I had to break trail because no one else had recently ventured out there. I camped three nights at Glacier Point and a night at Sentinel Dome, shooting the firefall each evening. This was at least my fourth attempt at the trip. In 2020, there was no snow. In 2019, I flew from Washington DC to California, but the entrances to Yosemite were closed due to extreme snowfall. In 2018, there was no snow.
I guess I can sell the lens now? This is a stack of 20 5-minute exposures at f/4. Normally the A7R3 is pretty noisy during long exposures, but the far-below-freezing ambient temperatures kept thermal noise to a pleasant minimum.
Glacier Point Star Trails
Many years ago, I bought the Rokinon 12mm fisheye for one particular photo that it made possible. Since then, I've kept the lens with one more shot in mind: this one. I finally was successful.
I wanted to shoot the North Star from Glacier Point in the winter and have both Half Dome and the lights of Yosemite Valley in the photo. When I composed this shot, I realized that Yosemite Falls (left) and Nevada Falls (right) just fit into the frame too. I put the horizon through the middle of the frame to keep it straight. The fisheye lens projection kepts the star trails circular, whereas a wide rectilinear lens would stretch the star trails into egg shapes.
Getting to Glacier Point in the winter was a major effort, especially since it was snowing on me during the 10-hour snowshoe in and I had to break trail because no one else had recently ventured out there. I camped three nights at Glacier Point and a night at Sentinel Dome, shooting the firefall each evening. This was at least my fourth attempt at the trip. In 2020, there was no snow. In 2019, I flew from Washington DC to California, but the entrances to Yosemite were closed due to extreme snowfall. In 2018, there was no snow.
I guess I can sell the lens now? This is a stack of 20 5-minute exposures at f/4. Normally the A7R3 is pretty noisy during long exposures, but the far-below-freezing ambient temperatures kept thermal noise to a pleasant minimum.