I planned this photo shooting for half year. The blooming season of tulips is only one month each year. The peak blooming is only two weeks. There were only two nights with clear sky within peak blooming weeks this year. If I carry one camera, I can only shoot one star trails photo per night. I told myself don’t make any mistake otherwise I have to wait one year to try again. I observed the weather forecast tightly everyday, including the wind speed which could affect the flowers, then determined the two nights to head to the wooden shoe tulip farm. I even prepared 10 Q-tips, because the humidity was high and was very cold during the night, water condensed on my lens quickly, I have to clean it every 5 minutes. The shutter was opened, so I had to clean the lens in totally dark. If I turned on any light, the star trails would be ruined.
Thanks a lot for all the comments and votes!! This is a manual HDR plus artificial lights (without AEB nor Photomatix). Photoshop done all the PP. The brighter sky was northern light. Oh! Just kidding, I mean northern city light.
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i was just looking at a photo contest for Energizer and saw this photo was one of the 2010 winners. i knew i recognized it from DPC! Congratulations...belatedly!
my god .. sorry .. but this is amazing .. are you even human ?? .. i think you must have special powers .. or at least a connection with and understanding of your camera that most of us just dream of .. :)
This is just too much. I'm scared to leave my Sony on that long but this photo is amazing. Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, this is amazing, and the time and effort you spent to get this shot is truly appreciated. As well as your explanation of how you did it. Shots like this inspire the rest of us to try the previously unthinkable. Simply excellent.
This is a photo to be proud of, a truly unique image. I see that you had the camera facing north east, from the trails. It must be very dark there at night for you to do this at 5.6 and almost 3 hours, or perhaps done with a N D filter. The 7D did an awesome job with keeping the noise low.
I am guessing that the windmill is a 1/4 or 1/2 scale model, as I see what looks like a bench seat in front of it.
Thanks for adding the details about how it was done. I salute you for your patience and careful planning. You were rewarded with a very memorable night and an outstanding image for your effort.
Incredible photo! I can't convey how much I love this shot. :D Now THIS is a long exposure done right. Added to favorites and bookmarked in my Inspiration folder.
Your patience and planning paid off - this is magnificent. Congratulations on achieving the goal you set out to achieve! (And that's the photograph, not the ribbon. The ribbon is just a little icing on the cake.)
Brilliant capture. Very well excecuted techncally and composition wise. The processing is also exceptional as the usual annoying HDR artifacts cant be seen.
Did you hear that?! My jaw dropping straight to the floor! STUNNING! I'm fascinated how perfect the lighting is...looks like beautiful tulips during the day, but with a stunning star trails by night! Wow! What a powerful combination. Don Quixote himself couldn't fine a more perfect windmill to dream "the impossible dream."
Must have been an extremely calm night to not have any blur from the tulips wavering in the breeze. Or perhaps you exposed the foreground with a flash at some point? Inquiring minds want to know.
Great angle and impressive vivid colors..
The scenery looks somehow unreal and maybe this was intentionally done, but whatever matters this is for sure a very beautiful image!
Good luck! (10)
Another fantastically well done star trail image, once again this image humbles me as a photographer - this is well off the scale of what I could achieve and it makes me sit up and take notice. Stunning clarity, amazing DOF, perfect coloration, lovely composition. I think this will have very wide appeal too - my bet for the blue.
Your lighting in this is outstanding. I imagine you had to paint light onto all of the flowers, as well as the windmill. Your efforts paid off with a beautiful image.
Star trails, windmill and tulips
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