Wild World - Cannon Beach, Oregon

It's been a year and a half now since I took my first Milky Way shot, and around a year since the original version of my Free Star Photography Tutorial was posted online. Until 3 days ago I had never taken a star trail shot or processed one for that matter. On this recent trip I decided those days should end, so star trails it was. After doing a bit of messing around in the field and getting some stuff I liked on the camera and in post processing it's due time that a star trails section is added to the Free Star Photography Tutorial. After clicking "Publish" on this post I'll start writing it, so you can look for it in the next day or two, I'll also provide a link in the next blog post! Just like the current star photography tutorial for Milky Way shots, this will be very in depth and provide everything you need to know.

The Shot
Another morning on Cannon Beach, I thought this one was gonna be a dude, and then.... Thankfully we waited a bit after the sun came up and things started to get a bit more interesting. The one nice thing about this place, no matter how many times you go, there is always something different to shoot or explore. The tides seem to play a huge roll in this and constantly changes the visible landscape. On this particular morning I found this rock and the little tide pool that had formed around it. As usual I took a little walk around the thing to get a glance from all angles and tried to nail down an interesting composition. When the light started to get nice and contrasted the clouds and water I started clicking away. If you look closely at the rock on the right you can see a star fish clinging for his life.

In terms of post processing this was mostly carried out in Lightroom, with some final vignette and contrast adjustments in Photoshop & 10 minutes later the photo was done. This is one advantage of shooting away from the sun. A single RAW files easily does the trick:)

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