Light Painting

I like to try new techniques with my photography.  For a long time I had been wanting to try light painting and star trails.   Last night, the moonrise was going to be in the early morning hours, the stars were out, so we drove over to Lake Granger. I was hoping to find an interesting tree with a clear area around so I could get star trails.  

I found my tree and set up my camera.  As I started "painting" the tree with my flashlight, I noted the windy conditions and how the branches with leaves were moving too and fro.  I figured that was probably a sign that this was not going to work well, but since I was experimenting anyway I kept going.  Since I was using long exposures, I didn't take that many shots.  I was using an older, much used Canon 5D and the noise level and "hot" pixels were excessive in my longest exposures.  I went ahead and bumped the ISO to 1600.  With some noise removal, this was the best of the lot.  

While this is not the image I had visualized, I find that I like it.  The wind action through the leaves creates almost a watercolor look.  

Perhaps I'll go back again soon and try again.