Day 305: July 27, 2005 - Milky Way Checkboard Mesa

by Christian & Karen Williams
This photo was a group effort, with Karen behind the camera and Chris in front of the pine trees in the foreground "painting" the Checkboard Mesa with a large spotlight. The camera was on a tripod and set to a 30 second long exposure, which gave us enough time to shine the spotlight over the surface of the Mesa. The ISO was set to 3200 to boost the light absorption of the imaging sensor and allow the detail of the stars to show through. A high ISO adds quiet a lot of grain to the photo, but was necessary because too long of a shutter speed would cause the stars to "blur" as the earth rotates. If the camera were attached to a telescope, which could compensate for the rotation of the earth, we could have used a longer shutter speed, without the high ISO.

In this photograph, you can clearly see the various stars and nebula and gas clouds which are thousands of light years away. On a clear, late night in Zion, it's possible to see this section of the Milky Way with your visible eye. Living in the city, it's easy to forget how wondrous the heavens appear in the dark of night.

Day 255: June 7, 2005 - Entering Hop Valley

by Christian Williams
This interesting circular pattern on the rock caught my eye as we hiked through Kolob this morning. In the background, the beautiful red mountains of Kolob can be seen.

by Christian Williams
This beautiful stretch of trail leading out of Kolob and into Hop Valley had the feeling of crossing a large desert. We entered a beautiful wide open valley completely surrounded by tall red rock cliffs, but instead of finding a field of flowers, the valley was full of soft, hot, red sand. Great scenery, but tougher to hike than the trails normally found in Zion. Here is Karen hamming it up - don't worry, it was not really like crossing the Sahara Desert, and we had plenty of water.

by Christian Williams

This star trails photo consists of 3 seperate 15 minute exposures overlayed on top of each other. With the camera on the tripod and the shutter left wide open for 15 minute intervals, the stars appear to shot across the sky as the earth rotates in orbit. The foreground is light because an initial exposure was taken just as the sun was setting.

Day 21: October 16, 2004 - Stars over Zion

by Christian Williams

Astro-photography is a great way to pass long nights while camping in Zion. The sky is usually perfectly clear and filled with stars. We were still camping by the Virgin River, and likely playing Skip-bo or Phase 10 inside the tent. I've always thought our light-weight 2 person tent looked like an alien spacepod, and this picture lends credence to that belief. This photo was combined together from dozens of shorter exposures. The earth's rotation makes the stars appear to be swirling around overhead. It's possible to get the same photograph in a single exposure, but the image quality is better this way.

by Karen Williams

Every day in the Fall, I look at the amazing leaves in the canyons of Zion with all of their colors, and wanted to capture the spectrum of colors in this image. Afterwards, as I looked at my photographs, I noticed that the leaves appeared to be floating with the tide. It is an interesting perspective - I was standing at the edge of a canyon, looking down at the sea of leaves on the treetops, the tree trunks were lost in the darkness at the bottom of the canyon.