Sunset and Star Trails, Southeastern Colorado, July 31, 2020

I made a few sunset shots as the late day storm clouds blew past, as I was setting up for night shooting.

Dramatic Sky. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 24mm, f/11, 1/80s, ISO 64, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Color Efex Pro 4.

The clouds in the sky were moving and changing quickly as they blew from northwest to southeast.

English Valley Sunset Sky. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 24mm, f/11, 1/10s, ISO 64, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Color Efex Pro 4.

Just as the sun was setting, the sky to the northwest was clearing rapidly and we hoped that the clouds would clear out completely, as the weather forecast predicted, for our night images.

I used a few of my images to make a very short time-lapse movie, which can be seen here SE Colorado Sunset Sky.

We made final checks of our cameras, remote shutter release programs and put rain covers in place (there was still a slight chance of overnight rain), then hiked back to our vehicles.

Early the next morning we retrieved our cameras, then went to another location for sunrise photographs.  Upon returning home, I processed the night images and this is the final product.

Star trails with moonlight landscape. A composite of 45 4 minute night exposures with the foreground illuminated by moonlight. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 24mm, f/5.6, ISO 400. Edited in Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop and DxO Nik modules.

Normally, a dark sky is preferred for star photography, but there was a bright moon this night.  Our cameras were programed for 4 minute exposures, during the interval when the landscape would be illuminated by moonlight.  The light on the landscape and shadows changed throughout the shooting interval, with some images looking dull and other images looking almost like they were lighted by golden hour sunlight.  I chose one of the images with what I considered the most attractive foreground light to make make this final composite of 45 images.

Thanks for following, stay safe and well,

Ken