2011 Nature Visions Expo

I learned yesterday that three of the images I submitted to the 2011 Nature Visions Expo were juried into the Expo.  The three images are posted below, although a couple of them have been featured in previous post.  You can see my images that were accepted into the 2010 Nature Visions Expo in this post.

The Nature Visions Photo Expo will be held the 11 - 13 November at the Hylton Performing Arts Center located on the Prince William County Campus of George Mason University.  They will have several speakers, including a keynote address by Art Wolfe.

 Saguaro cactus and star trails around the north star.

Eastern Box Turtle, taken near Pittsburgh, PA

Eye of the Turtle

 Cook Forest State Park, near the Allegheny National Forest.

Forest Dreams

Saguaros, Sunrises and Star Trails

Saguaro at Sunset, McDowell Mountain Regional Park near Phoenix, AZ

I just returned from a 3 day trip to Phoenix and was blessed by a gorgeous sunset the first night and beautiful clear skies the next two nights.  Pictures of long exposure light trails, with the stars swirling around the North Star, have always been favorites of mine.  I have tried, unsuccessfully, several times over the past couple years.  I finally succeeded early one morning a couple weeks ago with a star trail over the Potomac River.  However, I couldn't get a long enough exposure before the sun rose.  More importantly, I lacked an interesting foreground.  The Saguaro Cactus and desert night sky of Arizona could solve both of those issues.

Light Trails at McDowell Mountain Park near Phoenix, AZ

I arrived in Phoenix to cloudy skies -- not promising conditions for star trails.  I went to McDowell Mountain Regional Park anyway, if nothing else just to scout out the area.  I arrived just after sunset.  While there I played around with some long exposures, light painting saguaro cacti and finally capturing a 6 minute exposure of the night sky as I drove the car back and forth along the road -- with only the parking lights, no headlights.

More images and light trails after the jump: