Copyright © 2010 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
A few friends and I were planning to meet at Mission San Juan Bautista to shoot star trails. Using TPE it was determined that the No. Star would line up between the hands of the statue “Praising Man” . I could be wrong about the name. Anyway, a friend and I got there early to shoot the Mission chapel, and the town.
While we were wandering around town we noticed the fog bank rolling in and were afaid it would mess up our plans to shoot Star Trails. After dinner we went up to Fremont Peak to take photos of San Juan Valley and the sunset. When we reached the top all we saw was a sea of fog covering the valley below us.
When we got down to the Mission around 8PM there was no sky or a star to be seen over or around the “Praising Man”.
So we stopped our other friends from coming all the way to San Juan Bautista, then regrouped in Gilroy at a coffeeshop. At the “Doctor up your coffee” station next to me was a CHP officer so, I engaged him in a conversation about our goal to shoot Star Trails and I asked him if he knew of a high place with some trees or building we could go and shoot and NOT get in trouble with him or his co workers.
He suggested two places. On heading north and the other Dinosaur Point to the south. The North was socked in so we chose to drive out the 20 miles to check out Dinosaur Point.
We hiked out the road a 1/4 mile then doubled back and got off the road and blazed our own trail up a hilly pasture to take our frames.
We left after 2AM. It got colder and windier the longer as the night wore on. I think the ghosting is from the wind hitting my tripod. I used my body to sheild it as much as I could.
How do I align 28 frames before actually stacking them?
Stacked in CS5- Resized