Inspirations – Polaris by Jacob Lucas

© Jacob Lucas

24mm @ f/8 ISO 800 for 1128.2 seconds (approximately 19 minutes)

Before travelling to Cannon Beach, I’d seen many, many images of Haystack Rock and the coastline and I thought to myself, I want to come up with some different but equally as beautiful as everything I’d seen from the area. I thought, if there were a clear night sky, I may be able to capture the North Star (Polaris) with some star trails above Haystack Rock. I knew I needed to be south of the rock looking North and that if I pulled it off, the movement of the star trails would lead the viewer’s eye from Polaris, down to Haystack Rock and back up again. So, I waited for the cover of darkness on the beach, watched the sun set and visualised my shot. It as a beautifully clear evening with stunning colours in the sky. When the sky was dark enough (at the time I took this image it was nearly pitch black dark with small amounts of light over the horizon from the setting sun) I set up my tripod and composed my shot. After a couple of test exposures to get a feel for the light, I extrapolated out what settings I would need for an exposure of approximately 20 minutes… and this is the result.

I think one of the key points to remember about photographing the stars in the sky is that they are also landscape images, much like their daytime counterparts. They deserve as much thought into composition and subject placement as any other landscape photograph.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Darwin for featuring my image of Cannon Beach on his blog. It’s a true honour to have my work posted alongside the company he keeps here. ~ Jacob Lucas

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