Jump to content

My photo was just chosen by National Geographic editors for Top Daily Dozen on their website!!!!


UstadKhanAli

Recommended Posts

  • Members

Wow!! My photo just made "The Daily Dozen" on National Geographic's website!!!!! Every day, NatGeo editors select 12 favorite photos.  Today, mine was one of the twelve selected!!!  If you are so inclined, you may vote for my photo, but I don't know whether you have to create an account or some such thing first.

 http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/daily-dozen/2013-09-20/

 

Temple Tree Star Trails

A direct link to the photo, "Temple Tree Star Trails" on National Geographic, is here.  

This photo is one of several taken during my trip to Zion National Park (Utah) and Valley of Fire (Nevada) earlier this year:  

http://www.elevenshadows.com/travels/valleyoffire-zionnationalpark/

 

The photo is a long exposure night sky photo showing the celestial movements of the sky, and is not the result of trickery or excessive manipulation in Photoshop.  By keeping the shutter open for a long time, the photo shows the movement of the stars over a long period of time.

 

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

530abb1fa5ed5.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Thanks!  That was a surprise.  And the funny thing is that I may not have known, but a fellow photographer told me about it!!

And I don't know if you saw a post from a day or two ago, but I mentioned this 15 year old photographer who is already taking really good looking star trails, night sky, macro and long exposure photos, all done with a strong sense of composition, technical capability, artistic sense, and a great deal of patience...anyway, he was the one who gave me a heads up.  He was perusing the National Geographic site, clicked on the photo, and then noticed that I took it, so he gave me a heads up or I may not have known for quite some time!!!!!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Thank you very much for your kind words of encouragement, everyone.

This is turning into an interesting weekend.

On the heels of being chosen by the editors at National Geographic for being one of the top photos of the day, another cool thing has occurred.

Photoburst chose my photo of the Trona Pinnacles as the Photo of the Day in their ongoing contest.

http://www.photoburst.net/travel-photography/2013/09/trona-pinnacles-california-usa-moonlight-nikon-d7000-tokina-11-16mm-ken-lee/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • Members


sventvkg wrote:

How long was the shutter open Ken? Congrats and it's a truly stunning photo!!

 

I was really really sure that I answered this, but don't see it anywhere.  Sorry.  

The total exposure for the Temple Tree Star Trails photo was 50 minutes.  However, since you asked how long the shutter was open for, it was open for 30 seconds for each individual photo, but I shot 100 photos in succession, later combining them in Photoshop in a technique called "stacking".  This was developed by astronomers to reduce noise in photographs, but us photographers can also use the technique.

There's no Photoshop "trickery" or manipulation besides "stacking"...just the usual sharpening, contrast, and that kind of thing, maybe a little bit of denoising in the sky, I don't remember.

I was trying to take a photo of a large rock outcropping.  However, the moon had other ideas, and kept shining in my lens.  But I turned around and saw this tree, looking quite a bit like it does in the photo, and immediately said, "Wow...."  I loved the way the moon was illuminating this.  This does have some other illumination from a car, which fortunately did not ruin the photo.  

This photo has become one of my favorite photos I took on the whole trip to Zion National Park in Utah and Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada, and to think that it occurred because I couldn't take the photo I wanted. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...