Photographer On The Road: Light Painting the Stars

On a recent trip to Las Vegas and Phoenix, a couple coworkers and I had the bug to get out to the desert and do some light painting. We had been out to Valley of Fire several times before, but never really explored much. This time would be very different.

Driving to Valley of Fire is a short one and a half hour trip (a little longer if you stop at the truckstop and fireworks stand for some amusement). Our usual spot is at the parking lot at the end of Mouses Tank Road. There are a few really great spots there (see some of my images in the gallery). This time we decided to hike in a bit. Down to an old movie set that is still standing and offers a GREAT backdrop.

Here you can see a remaining wall of a "Spanish Fort" behind the Orb.

Since we had near perfect skys, and just a sliver of a moon, we decided to set up a new little toy we had with us. The PowerShot S120 from Canon. Usually we just see these as point and shoots, not really intended for "creative use", but when you have 4 seasoned pro photographers jaws drop in unison when they see what this little camera can do, you know its much more capable.

Canon PowerShot S120 Star Trails Mode

Here the S120's "Star Trails" scene mode was used...yes, this is fully automatic. All you do is choose how long you want it to go, and place the camera. The rest is up to this litle beast.

Of course, we could not stop there...