Originally posted by Ed Hurst What do you guys think? I would normally work hard to edit out birds in a star trail image, but in this case, I feel it adds something. Rather as though the lighthouse is pouring out a fluttering ticker tape mass of birds with its light beams.
All feedback gratefully received.
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Pentax 645Z with 28-45mm f4.5 DA lens @ 38mm.
Beautiful and very interesting!
I think the effect of the birds is wonderful and if I were you, I would go back to the lighthouse to try different treatments of it. In particular, I'd work on increasing the size and definition of the bird trail zone. One minor dissonance in this image is that the large, brightly-lit, strongly-structured building is "looking left" whilst the more subtle and intriguing bird-trail zone is obscured behind the lighthouse and facing right.
I'd try moving the camera toward the right and a bit closer to the building which might better balance the building facade vs. light-fan-with-birds. I'd also try a portrait-oriented shot maybe with the front facade in the lower-left of the frame, the light-fan-with-birds in the upper-right, and the lighthouse cylinder bisecting the frame in the center. Of course, I could be horribly wrong, so the grain-of-salt, two-cents rule applies!
I do like your use of wide-angle here because it brings in more stars, provides a nice curvature of their motion, and adds a bit of keystoning to the lighthouse which accentuates the sense of height and scale of the tower.
Excellent image and an intriguing effect overall!