Colorado Captures

With optimal moonlight in the forecast, I made some plans for a return to a familiar spot called Mayflower Gulch near Copper Mountain, Colorado. There are some rugged peaks and remains of an old ghost town just above timberline that I’d been thinking about using for another star trail stacking effort.

Mountain Cabin With A View

Stars rotate around the north star in this long-exposure taken from high up on a trail in the Rocky Mountains. The thin sliver of a moon provided just the right amount of light to illuminate the snow-capped peaks without drowning out the stars. And with a little light painting, the cabin appears to provide an old-west style foreground.

With sunset at 8, I got to the trailhead and started snowshoeing up at about 9 under a thin moon (19% full) in the western skies. And with 2 miles to go and only a couple hours of moonlight to work with, I knew I didn’t have much time to waste. I figured I’d only get one shot at a star trail stacking effort because when the moon went down, my show was over. So after shoeing up to the cabin remains, I decided on a composition and started my timer with 15 – 3 minute exposures.

When the 15 exposures were done, I’d lost my moonlight on the cabin and would soon lose it on the peaks. So I shot a couple more times just to try light painting the cabin with a flashlight. This was my first effort light painting that I actually liked and I think it’s subtle use really helped to balance out the exposure overall.

In the end, I was pretty happy with my having captured good light on the foreground, peaks, and stars!