CraigBILL

Arches National Park, by many accounts, is my favorite natural area. It contains a collection of over 2000 of the greatest natural sandstone arches in the world - not to mention other countless fascinating geologic formations. Colossal stone fins, massive balanced rocks, soaring pinnacles and spires all tower above your head. The rock in this area was deposited as sediment in a Jurassic sea, which in the time of the dinosaurs was a northern tropical forest that extended almost entirely through the Colorado Plateau.
“Supernova” was captured in The Garden of Eden area. Although the arches are a popular formation, this part of the park features bizarre formations that sends your creativity into overdrive. For this image, I waited until the moon was just barely breaking around the rock edge. Using a “starburst” lens, I began shooting exposure after exposure until I got just the right one. Its amazing how fast the moon and stars move, as I had to move the tripod and camera every couple of seconds to line the moon back up on the rock. Too much moon, and the image blasted out in a washed- out exposure. The bright star to the upper right of the moon is Jupiter. The more accurate title to this image would be “Superluna”.