Spirit in the Sky

Posted by Craig (Vacaville, California, United States) on 13 September 2007 in Plant & Nature and Portfolio.

I was taking 30 second time exposures of the night sky when I noticed these gorgeous clouds heading my way. I timed the exposure to capture the clouds.

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Comments (21)

Michael Rawluk from Prince George, Canada

It looks like Northern Lights.

13 Sep 2007 5:12am

purelysnow from Chengdu, China

Beautiful night sky! You can almost see a smilie face in one of the groups of clouds.

13 Sep 2007 5:52am

badala from Leiria, Portugal

13 Sep 2007 6:28am

Lorraine from Gatineau, Canada

Well your timing is just fantastic...I've never seen a night blue like this, I love it :)

13 Sep 2007 10:42am

Aidan Hammond from Seoul, South Korea

Nice capture. I love the blur of the clouds

13 Sep 2007 10:56am

Viewfinder from Bradenton, United States

I think I see recognizeable parts of familiar constellations. This is sublime and beautiful and I want to know how you managed to get such clarity...

13 Sep 2007 11:10am

@Viewfinder: Shooting far from city lights on a new moon works wonders!

Titto from India

Thanks Craig...

13 Sep 2007 11:24am

Titto from India

doesn't your pic looks like one from nasa's... :)
clouds blending with sky is fabulous...

13 Sep 2007 11:28am

Elspeth from Trinidad and Tobago

Great shot ... and the title reminds me of a song I love (the Doctor and the Medics version of 'Spirit in the Sky')

13 Sep 2007 1:06pm

Amy from Rocky Mountain House, Canada

VERY nicely done Craig!! And I first did think it was the Northern Lights but then thought nope not in California!! It has such a great feeling of wonder for me!!

13 Sep 2007 1:58pm

Nick Passantino from Bronx, United States

awesome long exposure. great night shot

13 Sep 2007 3:12pm

Damon Schreiber from Toronto, Canada

Wow, that's impressive.

13 Sep 2007 4:13pm

Anne from White Rock, Canada

Wonderful capture of the night sky! Damon is right - very impressive Craig :-)

13 Sep 2007 4:45pm

Michel [Une photo,vite et reviens tard] from Cergy (near Paris), France

Sky is alive!!! Wonderful!

13 Sep 2007 7:10pm

Ken McCoy from Orlando-Daytona Beach, FL, United States

Ah! This brings back memories of when I used to stargaze. I'm guessing you used a moving telecope engine to keep the motion of the earth from making lines of your stars? 30 seconds is a long time for the sky to hold still :) Nice shot, and a good idea to include the clouds!

13 Sep 2007 8:14pm

@Ken McCoy: Actually no telescope engine was used. Just a tripod. :0)

Dawn Sutherland from Phoenix, United States

I have tried this and I never get results like this, what a great shot!!! Can you send me some hints??? Pretty please???? :)

13 Sep 2007 8:25pm

@Dawn Sutherland: I was camping up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains far from any city lights on a new moon (no moon) night. I set the exposure to 30 seconds because that is as long as my little Sony H5 will do and the aperture to 2.8 because that is as wide as my little Sony H5 goes. The tripod is of course essential! The rest was just luck! Hope that helps! :0)