Stars Above

A friend of mine, Katherine, has been trying for a while to get me to teach her some of the star photography techniques I've picked up, and... more

by Alexis Birkill

Title

Stars Above

Artist

Alexis Birkill

Medium

Photograph

Description

A friend of mine, Katherine, has been trying for a while to get me to teach her some of the star photography techniques I've picked up, and eventually she realised that the best way for this to happen was to arrange the whole thing, as waiting for me to become that organised could take some time!

We decided to take advantage of the clear weather in Vancouver, despite a full moon that would limit our ability to shoot anything other than star trails. As Katherine hadn't been to Porteau Cove Provincial Park at night before, and it's a pretty interesting place to photograph (especially if you haven't been there as often as I have!), we headed up the Sea to Sky highway at about midnight.

I decided to try a bit more of an abstract composition for this shot, which is looking vertically up from underneath the gantry structure at the end of the jetty. One side of it was lit up by the moon and the other side was in shadow, which caused an interesting contrast difference, despite the near-symmetrical shape.

Despite the full moon and some low-lying mist on the water, the camera had no difficulty in picking up an incredible number of stars, far more than was visible with the naked eye in the relatively bright conditions.

Uploaded

July 23rd, 2013