Shooting the night time sky is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Living in the city (or any city for that matter) it’s just something that isn’t possible to do – there’s way too much light pollution from below to make any kind of long exposure of the sky and stars feasible.
When I made plans to travel to the Oregon coast – away from the shining lights of Seattle and Portland – I’d hoped for nothing more than one night with a clear sky to try to capture Polaris – otherwise know as the North Star – through my camera with Haystack Rock as the background. On the last day I was there… the heavens parted and left nothing but the big dipper and his mates for my photographing pleasure. 
This photo was shot at ISO 800, 24mm, f/8, for a total of 1128.2 seconds (approximately 19 minutes) making this my longest single exposure. To give you an idea, this was photographed at 10:53PM PDT, just over an hour and twenty minutes after sunset. To the human eye, it was near pitch black dark with the exception of some light from up the beach illuminating Haystack Rock.
It took a couple of exposures to get a feel for what the “light” was like at the time, but when I got one frame that almost turned out, I knew where to base my settings from. I set the timer on my iPhone and waited. Those 19 minutes couldn’t possibly have taken any longer to tick by! When I unlocked my shutter release cable, I almost fell over in disbelief. It’s so incredible what a camera can see and capture that our own eyes cannot.
I hope to do a lot more of this kind of photography in the near future. The reward when a photograph turns out as you’d hoped is just phenomenal!
Mate, this is insanely cool! How did u know where the north star would be? I love how it’s placed in the upper right. This is a book cover image!
Jacob, what a stunning image!! I tried this once before but my exposure was around 50 minutes because I tried ISO100, but I think the noise I got from the long exposure was probably more than the noise I would have gotten from a higher ISO. I was surprised your was ISO 800 so I’m going to try that next time I get the opportunity. Thanks for the technical info. I think this is the most beautiful photo of Canon Beach I’ve ever seen.
Thanks Anne! Yeah, I had mixed noise from various ISOs that I tried, this one seemed to give me the best results.
This is just simply awesome Jacob. I love the Oregon coast and you have captured Haystack Rock perfectly.
Very nice long exposure! The composition on this shot is fantastic!
Beautifully done mate! Perfect with the haystack in the frame!
Absolutely awesome!
Jacob this is an absolutely amazing shot. I love the composition.
Hands down the best shot of Cannon Beach I’ve ever seen – incredible photo Jacob.
This made me cry
Dude, wow. Just wow. Never seen a beach shot from Cannon that had stars in it like this. Amazing.
An excellent shot, mate. Nice job taking the risks and investing the 20 min needed to get it!
Jacob,
I’ve been to Canon Beach a handful of times before, but I’ve never seen a photo like this before. Fantastic work.
Thanks man!
Sweet shot.
Great shot!! Extremely well done!
Fantastic work, Jacob! That’s one of my favorite spots ever.
Thanks everyone, truly!
Amazing photo! Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to the next one
Absolutely outstanding Jacob! Everything about this shot is just amazing. Colors, composition, and those wonderful star trails….perfection, mate!
On my recent holiday a star trail was on my ‘want’ list, but by the time I was in a spot that would suit the sky was clouded over. The awesome shot that I had in my mind was nowhere near to what this shot is. Simply stunning!
Outstanding composition and exposure. Mind blowing image.
Great result!!
Speechless! Like a few others before me have said, this is a brand new way of seeing Haystack Rock for me. Well done, Jacob!!!!
awesome image. steve beal hooked me onto your site.
Thanks, and welcome! Bealy is a top bloke!
Good LORD sir, this is utterly amazing!
This is freaking amazing man! I’m so jealous you can actually find a dark place to shoot!!
I simply can’t put into words what I feel about this image. I just want to sit and stare at it.
Wow, you guys are awesome! I’m sooo thrilled you enjoyed this image. If you’re ever in Oregon, do visit this little town!
I’m late–what else is new?–but this is phenomenal. Well done, Jacob!
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Absolutely stunning shot and thanks for the description of how it was made. Did you have noise reduction turned on so after your 19 minute exposure you had to wait another 19 minutes to actually see the finished shot?
Ha! Wouldn’t that have been rough…. No, I have long exposure noise reduction turned off.
wow….i do this sort of stuff all the time around C Beach and Manzanita and so on…..but never got one this good. Congrats….and thanx for inspiring me further!
Great images Jacob!
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