Basil Loc: New Mexico

OK, I messed up - but I think the result was still kinda cool. With the help of Father Adrian Sisnaros, I took this image of the San Francisco de Asis church in Golden, NM a couple nights ago. Father Sisnaros not only gave me permission to stay out there in this gated church/ cemetery, but he was nice enough to come out during the early stages of my shoot and help me (and he had his camera and got some cool Milky Way shots too). He turned off a distracting outside light and open the doors turning on some low level interior lights which really added to the picture. (The light you see in the bell tower is Father S in the back shining a flashlight up there).

I then spent the night there (ever spend the night alone in the dark in a cemetery?) to get some star trail images behind the church (actually it's around 1000 separate exposures all blended together to form the trails). I was really bummed when I got home and discovered all the star images were badly out of focus. Somehow, after I set sharp focus on the stars, the focus ring must have gotten bumped because the stars in all the images were out of focus. Nevertheless, I blended the star images to give this result of "fat" star trails. I'm going to go out and try a re-do to get properly focused stars, but I thought the end result of my mistake was still kinda cool.

(Download)

Tonytee Loc: Beaverton, Oregon

Quite a stunningly interesting capture. Many thanks for sharing this amazing treat. :))

Tony

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

Unusual I would say but otherwise a nice shot.

PoppieJ Loc: North Georgia

it is sort of cool and the stars being out of focus is a way better result than being over exposed so no color comes through. And, if you don't tell anyone about the mistake most would never know

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

Basil Loc: New Mexico

Thanks!

cahale Loc: San Angelo, TX

Looks good. Now, can you remember what you did for a repeat?

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Basil Loc: New Mexico

Sure. I just has the stars slightly out of focus

dustie Loc: Nose to the grindstone

"We don't have mistakes, we just have happy accidents.". (Bob Ross)

cucharared Loc: Texas, Colorado

Could it be that the focus was elsewhere - like the perfectly focused church interior?

Absolutely beautiful photo! I think you ought to claim that’s how you intended it to be.

Ron

Basil Loc: New Mexico

The church was shot separately during blue hour. The stars were shot separately then the two were blended. I had the stars in perfect focus initially but the focus ring must have gotten bumped.