Painted this scene with a 3-million candlepower "flashlight". A little over an hour after sunset; dark but not quite dark enough yet. Did contrast and brightness adjustments to compensate for the inadequacies of the lighting (Capture NX & Nik Color Efex). A later capture of this scene, when it was a bit darker, started to show the stars in the sky which will be the next goal (but the tree "stunk" so I went with this version). My first time trying this outdoors and there was (is) a lot of experimentation involved. We'll get it eventually. Here's a B&W version - http://www.pbase.com/ed_k/image/96461834
What is really going to be cool is when I figure this out to the point of capturing this scene (or a similar one) with star trails around the tree. Will have to move to the right a bit to shoot due North and may lose some foreground interest - or not.
My thanks to Travis, who got me off the dime after I talked about doing this for several months and who came out to shoot with me last night. We were waiting for the cops to show up - I planned to give Travis up (but don't tell him).