One challenge with star trail photography is to have the effect in the sky fit in with the other elements of the composition and complement rather than distract from them. I've always enjoyed photographs that include leaves swirling in the eddy of a stream, so for a few years I've looked for opportunities to capture them in a northward composition with star trails echoing that rotation in the sky. I finally found a pool in Yosemite with just the right flow, and in the right seasonal conditions to have the swirl in the foreground echo and complement the rotation in the sky.
This image was made from 80 photos of 30 seconds each, so it covers an elapsed time of 40 minutes of the earth's rotation.
I'm looking forward to my Yosemite Fall Colors workshop November 1 - 5, 2017! This image is from last year's workshop.
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