Hi Michael,
Nice effort. You certainly do have a lot in frame!!
Since you're actively seeking comments and criticism... One of the classic rules of good composition in photography is that you need a combination of (1) something interesting for the eye to lock onto, and (2) strong compositional elements for the eye to follow or be guided around the image. Just having a photo chockablock full of stuff isn't in-and-of-itself interesting; it really needs those compositional elements to catch and then sustain visual interest.
Since Greg was far too much of a gentleman to toot his own horn, I'll happily do it for him
Take a look at this spectacular photo:
http://www.capturingthenight.com/blo...weblookout.jpg
When I look at it, the aurora on the horizon immediately catches my attention. I then notice the panoramic setting of the hilly landscape and Milky Way in the background. Next, a number of lines draws my eye towards the right half of the frame (the curve of the aurora, the horizon, the ridge of the hills, and the stone wall in the foreground). I then notice that there's a gazebo of sorts, and the lights grab my attention again - looking closely, I notice that there are cameras shooting away in there. The brightness of the moon in the corner starts to grab my attention, but then I see the interesting silhouette of the tree before I get to the moon. I look at the moon, admire the shadows that it casts on the benches in the foreground, look back up towards the moon, and recognise the Orion constellation (neat!). After all that, I look back towards the aurora and admire the view all over again
In your image, you also have a lot of "stuff" but there's not much to guide the eye. The ISS trail is nice and contrasty, but it starts from a relatively uninteresting corner of frame, and ends at another relatively uninteresting part of frame. In between, there are lines pointing in many different directions - trees pointing up/right/left/diagonally, zodiacal light pointing elsewhere, star trails in every direction, and a rainbow of colours around the frame. It's a bit visually confusing without anything to "lock" onto. This happens to be why fisheye lenses aren't used very often in photography (though they're spectacular when used well) - good composition is difficult.
I think this scene may have been a very interesting time lapse, i.e. the relative motion of stars and ISS in opposite directions. Have you tried de-fishing the image (turning it into a normal rectilinear image - there are plugins/software for that)? It could be interesting... you'd get a nice horizon with the "emu" of the Milky Way bulge running across it, and the ISS trail making for a nice arc across the sky.
Hope this helps! Anyway, that's just my humble opinion. Feel free to ignore. Good luck and keep shooting
) - Focus on the center blur the edges....
