We visited Sedona Arizona for the first time back in 2013.  We rented an itty bitty teardrop trailer from Little Guy Trailers in San Diego and headed out, checking out a little bit of Historic Route 66 along the way.

We’ve upgraded our rolling hotel a couple times since that trip and have found that we really enjoy visiting Sedona Arizona.  Sometimes we head over there for a little getaway (and to hit the Bell Rock bike trail) and sometimes we pack a computer and just keep working!  On our most recent trip to Sedona we tried a little bit of long exposure photography.  We headed up to a spot that overlooked Hangover Trail and did a couple photos.  This first photo was a shorter exposure and the light coming in from the right side was the moonlight.  If you’re interested in the technical specs you can see them below the image:

Technical Specs:
Camera: Canon 5DMKII
ISO: 800
Focal Length: 50mm
Aperture: f5.0
Shutter: 25 seconds

We also shot a 2nd photo that was more time consuming because we wanted to do a star trail photo.  The brightness of the moon would fill our photo with too much light so we came back at 4:00am when the moon was no longer visible.  How dark is it at 4:00am out on a trail in Sedona?  Very dark…..for a few minutes anyway.  Then your eyes start to adjust and the small amount of light the stars give off slowly becomes brighter and you can actually see the ground in front of you.  It’s amazing.  But just because you can kinda see now, doesn’t make it any less spooky out there!  Every rustling leaf makes you think the dreaded javelina is coming to get you  🙂  Anyway, here’s the other photo we took.  The light coming in from the left side is actually from a couple particularly bright stars.  If you’re interested in the technical specs you can see them below the image:

Technical Specs:
Camera: Canon 5DMKII
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 50mm
Aperture: f5.0
Shutter: 1 hour

When it comes to star trail photography, a lot of people do image stacking rather than 1 exposure.  Image stacking is the process of taking multiple exposures (5-20 minutes long) and merging them together in Photoshop.  We may try that for a future photo but for the Sedona star trail photo above, we opted for one solid photo.

It’s so interesting to be out in the dark away from city noise, and city lights.  It’s amazing how many stars are out there and we can’t help but be in awe of God’s creation.

“He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.”
Psalm 147:4

Fine art photo prints of these images are available and if you’re interested in purchasing prints or using an image for commercial use, please contact us for more information!