Have you ever been disappointed? Yes? Me too, I wanted to see northern lights when they had been visible the night before I didn't know about it. Went out the next night, saw nothing... very disappointed, however, no night where you take a photograph is truly a complete loss. These were taken shortly after moonset on the shore of the Great Salt Lake with a few thousand of my not very close friends. Really liked the reflections on the water, I believe this first one was taken with my Rokinon 12mm f2.8 Fisheye.

These next two with the Pentax 15-30 f2.8

I do love long exposures, they alter the reality of what you see, showing you something in a new way, even though you have seen it before. Or in these next two where I initially was thinking I would not get much due to the moon washing out the stars and the clouds obscuring what was there to be seen. Instead I got a couple favorite images of the year, moving clouds with the moon behind and a few stars. If you notice there are some rays starting to come from the moon, this is an effect from the aperture with a bright light source in the frame, you will see it more in a couple of photos later in the post. Everything I have done here is shot from a tripod and a remote release, super easy to do.

Now onto starbursts, If you want a full fledged article on them feel free to go here: https://www.adorama.com/alc/starburst-effect/ all I know is I was a little jealous of people getting them with the multiple thin rays, that I had never been able to get very well with what I was shooting before I switched to the K1. Both my Rokinon 12mm f2.8 and Pentax 15-30mm f2.8 have really good and easily produced starbursts. I played with it a little bit before, but sunset the night I took the photos above I got something I Loved.

The sunset was spectacular, the clouds amazing and I loved these photos. Being able to draw attention with the starburst highlight was fun, it is almost a little hackneyed because almost every lens can do it now, but for ME it is just fun, and I like it!

Here is one of my first attempts at getting the starbursts.

If you liked these photos here is the gallery of the trip to Southern Utah

https://www.lloydshell.com/p246977683
 

Thanks for reading!